Alone in the Hive
by FenOnFire
Summary: Ty Parsec crash-lands on a planet outside the Alliance. The locals are hostile, his ship is damaged beyond repair, and it's going to be at least a week before his SOS will reach anyone.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hey BLoSC fans! Been a long time lurker, had some ideas and so... this is my first story for the fandom. :) All the characters, places etc. that I didn't invent belong to Disney/Pixar, this story is for free entertainment only and all that other legal stuff you're supposed to say.

* * *

Rhyssa knew many things: first of all, the Queen was... Failing... And had been for some time. So it had been necessary to choose from the best larvae to be potential new Queens (if the Queen was failing, the lesser queens would soon follow) and to allow some of the drones to develop. The next was that the shortage of Workers (due to the Failing Queen producing fewer and fewer females) could be trouble, given the excess of Soldiers in the Hive. A cull might be necessary. If so, she would need to evaluate her brood sisters, after she announced her intent and was herself examined for defects. Last but not least, the planet was once again being visited by strangers. Ugly strangers.

The appearance of these strangers varied by species, but in general they were marked by a serious shortage of appendages, and a soft body, like a larva's, with- here's the crazy part- an internal, calcium-based skeleton all fed by black, iron-based blood. The limbs they did have didn't have enough joints and moved completely wrong. The ends of their two upper limbs had hands, which functioned pretty well, but lacked any sort of sticky pads (most species also lacked decent claws). Most of them had flat paddle shaped feet, though there were a few who had clawed toes. Species with natural wings existed, she knew, but none of those ever came. Instead these flightless creatures made mechanical wings, which just didn't work as well. Rhyssa couldn't think of any other species with stingers, not even the cute stubby ones the Workers had.

They also tended to have two very small and mobile eyes, located within specialized holes in their head capsules ("skulls?"), which were required to be kept damp via the downward movement of skin plates over them.

The outsiders lacked mandibles, but had bony things within their fleshy, soggy mouthparts that ground food, and used _verbal_ speech as their primary form of communication, despite their vision being their primary sense.

Instead of antennae, they had cartilaginous structures on the sides of their head to detect sound (and another embarrassingly weak one between the eyes to detect scents). According to her texts, cartilage was something like the chitin that made her shell, but not really... Most of them had a very limited range of hearing, which called into question the logic of using spoken languages. They didn't even have alternative parts to do the other things antennae did, which made her wonder how they could even _function_. Of course there were exceptions to all of the above- there just had to be.

Oh, and rather than producing drones only when needed, fully half their populations were male. On top of which, _all_ their females were queens, but rarely produced more than five offspring during their lifetimes. Most bizarrely, females had fathers (obviously) _but_ _so_ _did_ _the_ _males_.

Despite clearly being ill-suited to such things, the outsiders all seemed to think they should explore and fight (they were actually much better at it than should be possible, which was a bit scary) and had to be reminded that the Hive was not a place for them to even look at (with their teeny little eyes, haha) about every so often.

And that was just everything wrong about them physically. From what the Hive could gather, the social structures of their societies were completely irrational (at best), and Rhyssa dared not even think of what passed for law and order out there. Sure, the Hive avoided contact with the outside at all costs, and so far that had worked, but understanding Basic was necessary in order to comprehend the garbled signals that sometimes ended up reaching the Hive.

It was troubling to say the least- many of these outsiders had joined something called the Galactic Alliance (which at least had the sense to put a female in power) in order to mutually defend themselves against a male (repeat: _male_!) ruler known as the Evil Emperor Zurg, and to mutually exchange valuable goods. This Alliance was constantly expanding, and though the Failing Queen was opposed to seeing, smelling, or hearing about it, the day was fast approaching when the Hive would be contacted, as some of their neighbors surely had been.

Hopefully such a thing would happen after the new Queen's emergence, in a few weeks (she thinks?) or so. She knew this was a treasonous thought, a sure sign of mental defect (until the Queen's death you didn't even admit She was mortal), but how could the Hive ignore such obvious benefits- if these broadcasts were true- from non-hostile interaction? From exchange of goods and from permission to enter other hives and colonies, provided you followed their... Rules...? The disadvantages of isolation were blatantly obvious to Rhyssa, but then again there were reasons Soldiers and Workers didn't rule the Hive. The Queen is its mother, and (outsiders weren't completely hopeless, they were partly in agreement on this) mothers are to be obeyed without question, comment, or hesitation._ Obviously_. If one behaved otherwise, what would even be the point of having a Queen?

Her musings were cut off when the white, purple and green ship began to open. It hadn't been doing well. Between the large cracks and dents in the hull, one twisted wing, and billowing clouds of smoke, the occupants were not leaving anytime soon. From the smell, they'd hit a space-mine. Out came two big, clunky robots and one scrawny, wide-eyed human. That was _all_. If Rhyssa had lips, she would have been grinning. Instead, the Apocritan Soldier flickered her wings, and strained her antennae to hear the human's futile rage (and smell some more of that wonderful odor frightened mammals make).


	2. Chapter 2

Ranger Parsec landed his ship without... incident... If he had to describe it that way... and escorted the Alliance's newest ambassador back into his own building. Oh, _stars_ was he glad that was over. These people treated pranks and jokes like they were the best things ever invented by sentient beings. He wondered how long it would take for that stuff the Ambassador stuck in his shampoo to wash out. His hair was rock-solid and smelled like old onions. And that was just the _beginning_ of the craziness he'd had to deal with.

Some other Lahilans tried to make small talk with him, but he just wanted to go home, so he lied a little bit, saying he had to get back right away to give his report (technically true, but what he really wanted was to put the ship on autopilot and get some sleep! Hopefully he wouldn't have to dodge any Volturans again.).

Just as Ty entered the ship, somebody yelled. He turned around. A young Lahilan man was running up with an urgent expression on his not-quite-bearded face. The man stopped to catch his breath.

"Heya we almost forgot, nobody I don't think did tell you 'bout the Apocritan mines in the asteroid belt, yah..?" the grey humanoid asked, green patches glowing.

Ty puzzled over that mess of a sentence. "No, actually. There are mines in the belt?"

"Yeah man from Apocrita. Don't you go hitting on them, because you know they really mess up a ship, let me tell ya, they follow you and bust a hole right through the hull and then your ship you gotta land it, where's the closest place, man? It's Apocrita, yah? Don't do it! They eat people, man, no joke," the man rambled. Ty nodded.

"Thanks for the advice, Mr...?"

"Imek, sir, Imek Kemi..." the patches flared, looking a bit more teal than before.

"Right. I will be _sure_ to include your advice in my report," Ty guessed that the kid was as bad at sarcasm as he was at sentence construction. Apparently he was right, since the guy left happily. Locals and their pranks...

Finally, for real this time, Ty Parsec was able to leave. He punched in the coordinates for Star Command, being sure to make a route around the asteroid belt- even without any of these supposed "Apocritan mines", that was a pretty bad thing to have on your path. He set up the autopilot, and had a sentry robot man the controls so he could get his eight hours. Maybe ten, given the way most of the trip had gone. Well, maybe it wasn't all bad. That hilariously bad Jo-Adian horror film the Ambassador gave him was worth another watch, if nothing else was happening later...

* * *

Of course, when people really, _really_ want to sleep, their bodies naturally do otherwise. So Ty woke up around six hours later, feeling somewhat refreshed, but in need of a shower and probably just a little more sleep. Ty threw out all the bath supplies, deciding a boiling hot shower would have to suffice until he got back to Star Command. The stuff in his hair dissolved, which was fine. The rotten onion smell got progressively worse, and by the time his hair was softened to something resembling normal, Ty was forced to flee the shower, gagging and holding back bile. Which was most definitely _not_ fine...

"Craters! It's the gift that keeps on giving, isn't it?" he yelled. He dried off with a towel, grumbling about stupid pranks and professionalism. "So now I need to do this again, just to stop stinking up the ship!" he snarled, throwing his arms up in exasperation. The sentry bots looked at one another, but said nothing (well, nothing an organic could hear). Neither were equipped with olfactory sensors, so Ty's distress seemed a little silly. They could detect the harmless chemicals coming off him, noting that one was a mammal-friendly insecticide. Perhaps the Ambassador had lice? Or meant to suggest that Ty did? The pair conversed 'silently' about the bizarre mannerisms of the Ambassador and Lahilans in general. Something beeped in the controls.

"Could you guys check that, please? I'm getting my suit back on," Ty asked. He was actually fully dressed, and toweling his hair. It was no longer rock-solid; soft clay was a more accurate description. Well, at least that stuff was coming out. Small miracles and all that jazz. It looked like he'd have to suffer though a few more showers if he wanted to avoid shaving his head, because there was no way it was all coming off at once.

"Yes, sir," one of the bots answered. Then, sounding concerned, "Sir, something's following us. It looks like a satellite of some sort?"

"Is it sending out any signals or anything?" Ty stepped into the main bridge and sat down in the captain's seat. Blast, that was a speedy little whatever-it-was. The sentry to his right said no. "It's just tailing us, sir."

Ranger Parsec glared at his monitor. "Actually, I think it's getting closer," he pushed a button before continuing in a stern voice. "This is Ranger Ty Parsec of Star Command. I repeat, Ranger Ty Parsec of Star Command. Do you read me?"

There was no answer. Ty repeated himself, waited, and then a third time with a command to stop shadowing the ship. Still no response.

"If you don't stop following, I will be forced to assume you are hostile," he warned, "and I will be forced to defend myself." Nothing. He hailed the unidentified object, warned it again, and when it still didn't respond, he opened fire. The satellite exploded behind him, and they continued on their way.

Looking forward, Ty could see a massive blue and green planet with three moons to his right. Said planet and moons, according to the sensors, were surrounded by some kind of satellite security system. It wasn't Lahila. Lahila looked green and brown, and was maybe two thirds the size of this world. And it lacked a satellite security system.

"Sir, we are receiving a pre-recorded signal from the surrounding satellites," said a sentry.

"Play it," Ty ordered, after a few moments. Somehow, he felt something was going to go horribly wrong.

Sometimes Ty Parsec _really_ _hated_ being right. A loud, droning screech sound blared over the communication system. Images flickered across the monitors- gigantic trees and florid grasslands burning, what looked like bugs covered in goo, and then an unnecessarily long series of pictures of mangled people. Most of them were Lahilan, but there were a few others that Ty recognized as species who had, at some point in their worlds' history, been intergalactic conquerors or raiders. He hit buttons, going through all the stop commands and sequences he could remember. The sentry bots were silent. Nothing was working! It wouldn't shut off! The last image (another Lahilan, or at least most of the unfortunate man's body) lingered for about ten seconds. The entire message was two and a half minutes of audiovisual hell. Then the ship became dark and silent, as all his input commands decided that this was the perfect moment to go through. His ears rang out in protest, and his heart raged against his ribcage. The foul onion smell helpfully informed him that he'd begun sweating.

"What in the _Hell_ was that?!" he shouted once the ringing in his ears subsided a little, "And why didn't anyone help shut it off?" No answer. The robots were offline. There must have been a hidden overload signal in the message, he realized. Ty growled, and got busy getting the ship (and the robots) back online. It took forever to get the ship running, and its sensors told him that he'd drifted off course during the message, and the subsequent blackout. Once the first robot was awake (it took longer than expected), Ty had him monitor the ship's status while he got the other one working. It occurred to him afterwards that he probably should have fixed the robots first. He'd only opened the second one's chest panel when the first sentry alerted him to yet another problem: the ship was being followed by more of the satellite-like objects, larger and faster than the earlier one. Ty ordered the robot to open fire and steer the ship back on course. Finally the second robot came online, just in time for a satellite that didn't get shot to slam into the side of the ship and explode.

"This is getting ridiculous!" He yelled at nobody in particular.

Even more satellites appeared, and Ty suddenly realized that the scruffy young man wasn't joking about mines, but had definitely gotten their location wrong. Several more darted in, and the hull was breached. The ship's readings did not look good. Another mine took out the escape pods.

"Losing pressure, sir," the first sentry droned. It was still getting its functions in order. Ty growled, knowing he didn't have many options. The stats were getting worse, five or six different alarms were going off, his sentries were taking way too long to come online... Oh, and the satellite mines kept coming. Fantastic.

He groaned, rubbing his forehead. Then he sent out an automatic distress signal, and- hating himself every second for it- turned the ship toward what he assumed was Apocrita. Hopefully they didn't really eat people.

* * *

A/N:

Thanks for the reviews and advice! I hope Ty is in character.


	3. Chapter 3

The ship landed safely. If the definition of 'safe' includes 'on fire, but not currently exploding'... Ty wasn't sure how his ship survived entering the atmosphere, but he was grateful that it had, even though he'd smacked his head hard enough to black out for a few minutes. The sentries told him, but he didn't remember. Smoke was everywhere, and getting outside was top priority. The robots opened the door and everyone darted out. Actually, Ty did that- the robots just walked out calmly. They knew there was time.

"Why can't I just have a nice, normal mission? For once?" the agitated Ranger griped. He hit his hands against the sides of his head, which was stupid, and collected himself- complaining would be counterproductive right now, and not at all Ranger-like behavior. The suit hadn't scanned the atmosphere like it was supposed to, so he put the helmet back up. He'd just have to endure the smell for now. Ty needed to go back inside and grab the survival kit and the other spacesuit. Toilet paper too, if there was time. He bolted back in, got the kit, the suit, his extra underwear, and even some toilet paper. Alarms he could do nothing about were going off.

Mentally calculating the odds, Ty decided to take a risk and get some non-perishable food (and oil for the robots) from the kitchen. The fridge goods were doomed. And he'd been looking forward to that rice pudding, too... Oh, to heck with it. He opened the fridge and grabbed the pudding. No reason to let it go to waste, right?

The unfortunate trio carried their armloads (the robots had grabbed a few other things) up a hill, into a flower forest. His ship made some banging and popping noises, anticlimactically collapsing on itself. _Then_ it blew up. The cockpit spun through the air and landed, but the blast didn't fling the wreckage so much as lazily scatter it.

One of the sentries looked at him.

"Sir, you got the oil?" it sounded surprised.

"Sure did."

"Thanks! You know, most organics forget things like that," it thanked him. Ty couldn't help but smile. Sentry bots as a whole were distantly polite, so this one was probably happier than he let on.

Now that everyone was safe, Ranger Parsec examined the environment. The first thing he noticed was the sheer size of the flowers. They were daisies as tall as houses. The petals stretched out above him, blocking the sun. He wondered what the _trees_ were like. Were there trees? His suit sensors said the air was safe, so Ty lowered the helmet. The air was pleasant- warm, not too humid, and a gentle breeze would have ruffled his hair if it wasn't currently posable. Strong floral scents surrounded him. It almost made up for the pounding headache.

Since the sentries were setting up the camp site, Ty decided to fly around a little, to get a better look at the area. He turned on his jetpack, and flew above the daisies. The field stretched on for miles in every direction, flowers swaying in the breeze. Or maybe that was him. He should probably be resting. A little higher, and he could see over the hill. Flowers that way too. Below, the ship was still smoldering. Something was scuttling on the ground near it, but it was too far for him to tell what it was. Out beyond his landing site, the ground was grayish-brown and rocky. It looked like... He went higher to confirm it... A wide, dried up riverbed, with what was possibly a stream in the middle. With any luck, the water was potable. On the other side, the flower forest continued. The mega-daisies on that side were interspersed with twisted, leafy spikes covered in vividly colored flowers with too many extra tendrils and other floral things (he's a Ranger, not a botanist). Really, they looked like evolution had taken psychedelics before working on them. He could see the neon purple zigzag patterns on the blue petals from his place in the air. His stomach growled, and his head reminded him of his recent crimes against it.

He glanced at the ship. The scuttling thing was gone. The man looped back through the camp to make sure everything was going well. Then he ate the pudding. It was delicious (going without food for over a day sure makes a guy obsessive, he noticed). He put the sentries on duty and took a nap- adrenaline rushes have a way of sucking out energy after the fact, and there was no way he was going back to the ship less than alert after that friendly little message.

Ty woke up an hour later feeling pretty good, given the circumstances. All his basic needs were taken care of, the headache was gone, nothing had tried to eat him, and the ship was probably safe to approach now. As soon as his signal reached somebody, help would be on its way. There was no reason to worry. Well, there were some, but they didn't need to be all-consuming. _Just don't get consumed, haha_, he thought, spoiling his own mood. _I really need to stop doing that._

The air was getting a little cooler, so he thought it best to check the ship before dark, whenever that was. That scuttling thing was something to keep track of. The idea that it might be inside the wreckage popped into his head and refused to leave. _Maybe it's friendly, or it left_, he reassured himself. _And maybe it's a cannibal_, the more cynical side of him retorted. The Ranger walked down, using the daisies as cover. After all, if there was trouble it was better to avoid it finding him. _Until you walk right up to it, smart guy, _he snarked at himself. He really had to stop doing that...

* * *

The stranger's fear hadn't lasted long. Very quickly, he recovered and went back into the ship. It grabbed some supplies, and then he and the robots ran away. Rhyssa realized there was probably a good reason for that, so she ducked back into the hole and shot down to the bottom. A few Workers gestured questioningly, and she directed the silly things back to the Hive. One groomed the ends of Rhyssa's antennae before leaving -that's all she could reach- while the rest had fled down the tunnel before she even finished her instructions. Pops and bangs filtered down from the surface, before a big one put an end to the noise. It was really hot in the tunnel after that.

After a long while, it sounded quiet enough (and felt cool enough) to investigate. She came out of the hole, and crawled on all six around the site. The smoke made her uneasy, as did something else she could smell but not identify. Smoke made smelling things difficult.

Rhyssa pointed her antennae toward the ship, and ran to it. Rather than solving the mystery behind this stranger's arrival, there was even more confusion. The settling smoke was crowding everything else out, heavy particles of it sticking to her antennae, but she pressed on.

The old texts assured her that foreigners were aggressive, sneaky, and cruel but would avoid conflict when in small numbers. A single outsider with two (presumably unarmed) robots counted as small, didn't it?

The wreck was cool enough to touch, so long as she stayed away from the back of it. The cockpit had been flung a short distance and was somewhat intact. So she pushed her way into a crack in the hull. She couldn't really smell anything, so once she was inside the Soldier stopped to clean herself. Rhyssa was glad she wasn't a Worker right now- she had sensory hairs on her antennae and a few other places, but they had fuzzy, cuddly hair all over.

The ship looked bizarre. Almost all the surfaces were bare metal with white paint. The colorful buttons were rectangular or round, and the viewing window was a large rounded rectangle. Even the _door_ was rectangular, and the individual floor panels were squares. It didn't make any sense. Why, of all shapes, did foreigners like _rectangles_? Hexagons are clearly superior.

_Maybe it has something to do with the number of limbs they have, _she thought to herself.

The ship smelled weird, too. Some sort of chemical was smeared all over everything. Some species she didn't recognize had been inside, too. The stranger had been agitated frequently on his journey, and he'd been hosting a Sky Devil for most of it. Rhyssa suspected those two facts were related. She also smelled that the stranger had been violently attacked by the Sky Devil in question, and she quickly smashed back her sympathies. Served him right for not shoving it out the airlock.

She heard something big scuttling by. Would that outsider come back? It wasn't unlikely, especially if he wanted to scavenge something or send a message. She began to slip back out of the cockpit, but heard the man yell out in surprise. When had he shown up? She was pretty sure those jetpacks make noise. Shortly after the yell, something else made a 'click-click-swee' noise. Ah. A creek-spider was going to take care of things for her. No need to worry, just fly away when it's over. Creek-spiders don't chase prey if they're already eating. She poked her head out to watch.

To her surprise, the stranger won. He shot the creek-spider in the face with some kind of black wrist-laser. The beast charged, and he shot it again, but this time the arachnid scrambled to safety. The outsider waited, wrist ready to fire... And nothing happened, so he shook his head in the direction of the creature and walked up to the cockpit. Rhyssa squeezed back inside, taking cover behind a... What was it called? Chain?... next to the control panel, waiting for her chance.

A laser beam sliced through the door, and cut out a circle (at least it wasn't another rectangle). The foreigner stepped through the hole and down some steps, grumbling to himself. He sat down on his chain and poked at some buttons. Rhyssa tackled him.

* * *

A/N: Ty really can't catch a break, can he?


	4. Chapter 4

Ty marched boldly into the clearing. There was a haze of settling smoke, and the occasional groan of cooling metal. His ship's cockpit- indeed, the whole nose- was mostly intact. The outer hull was banged up pretty badly, but there was a possibility (a teeny tiny one) that some of the communication systems were functional or could be made functional with a little work. He neared his vessel, noticing a huge crack in the metal near the window. It was big enough for something to get inside. He'd have to fix that when they moved back. Being eaten was _not_ on his to do list.

Of course, he should have known better than to think about it. As luck would have it, there was something else at the crash site that had eating Ty Parsec at the top of its to do list, and it lunged at him from behind a chunk of metal. Ty yelled, jumping to safety just in time. A bristly, blue-green spider skittered to a halt and turned to face him. It was as tall as he was, had several pairs of beady black eyes, and orange pedipalps. It lumbered his way again, and he shot it with his wrist laser. The monster gave eating him one last try, but a well-aimed laser beam forced it to retreat. Ty waited for a long time, wrist ready in case it came back, and then shook his head in disbelief. Would he ever catch a break? The trusty red laser had saved the day. He supposed the fact that it worked _was_ the break.

Ty was sure that his brain would get a letter from his adrenal glands pretty soon demanding a pay raise. His brain, he mused, would probably throw a tantrum and give everyone a headache. Including him. He jokingly advised his glands to hold off on the letter for now. Then he cut off this train of thought so he could pay attention.

Reaching the door, he found it wouldn't open the normal way, nor did the override system survive the crash. Sighing, the Ranger adjusted the laser's settings and melted a nice cut-out entry. Ty entered the cockpit, which seemed unreal without any lights on. Even when it was docked, there were usually safety lights. It looked like the setting of a horror movie, and not the kind from Jo-Ad. _All that's missing is a man-eating monster_, he thought. He grumbled to himself about the absurdity of his situation. Then he sat down in the captain's chair, and tried to activate... Anything, really.

Something metallic green moved.

Before he was able to respond, the green something tackled him, making a worryingly _familiar_ screech. There wasn't much room between the seat and the wall, so he and his attacker clumsily banged against it and hit the ground. His legs jutted up awkwardly, and the green thing was clawing at him, but his hands were free so he shot it in the face. _Craters! The reset function_! He thought as the invader was knocked backwards. If more than five seconds passed between laser activity, it automatically reset to its lowest standard setting. So it wasn't really hurt. He did have enough of a distraction to kick free and start scooting away, though. As he stood the green humanoid wasp-thing grabbed at his legs. He shot at it, missed because it had knocked him off balance, and hit the floor. He felt dizzy and nauseous- _Congrats, Ranger, you most definitely have a concussion_! flashed through his mind. The wasp-thing crawled on top of him, partially pinning his arm, and Ty barely managed to raise his helmet in time. Evil-looking mandibles snapped uselessly against the reinforced glass, before striking at the clawed-up chest piece of his suit. The creature was able to gnaw through _that_ in a hot second. He kicked and squirmed, trying to get away.

Skin parted. Ty struggled, turned his jetpack on and rocketed away on his back, arms completely free again. He set his laser to kill. His helmet went CLINK against the ceiling, and the green monster crashed into his back, tearing at the jetpack. The smell of propellant fluid filled the air, and Ty Parsec darted out the door before turning off the pack and running for cover. He needed a clear shot. The thing bolted after him, transparent wings buzzing furiously, and he opened fire. It dodged his shots (or maybe his vision was impaired, he hoped that wasn't the case) and swooped back into the ship.

"Oh, no, you don't!" he seethed. "That is _my_ ship!"

Ty cautiously stalked to the entrance, mentally berating himself for missing such a painfully obvious intruder in _his _ship_. That thing is a seven foot tall insectoid with a twelve foot stinger! How does something like that escape your notice_? Well, he'd found the man-eating monster. This time he would notice it, then he'd shoot it and/or get it out of there, and if that failed he'd probably die. It was probably better not to think about that part.

He steeled himself to leap in and fight. One last check of the laser settings later, Ty jumped out of his spot and took aim at... Nothing. Did it sneak out the crack while he was standing at the door? He looked up to be sure it wasn't on the ceiling. Just to be sure, he slowly moved inside, looking at everything. It wasn't by the chairs, not on the ceiling, and not behind him. It _must_ have gone out the crack. Ty decided that before he went back, he should patch the hole. He welded it closed with some scraps from outside, then tried to get the ship's communication systems to work. They didn't, so he left. He'd have to wait and see if it could be repaired when they were settled in.

The sky had turned a pinkish-yellow, which he was sure meant he had to hurry if he wanted to get back before dark. How long was the sunset on this planet anyway? Ty pondered this and other things on his walk back, like the killer headache he was going to have later for not resting and how he was now down a suit.

Rhyssa came back out of the hole. She fled, as Ty guessed, when he was at the door. She would have continued the fight against the foreigner had she been certain she'd win. After all, there was self-sacrifice and there was just plain stupid. The cockpit managed to be both too big to trap her target and too confined to fly properly. _And that laser was no joke,_ she thought as she rubbed her scapes. _He nearly blasted my left one off_! It was too far to fly back to the Hive this time of day; she would have to sleep in the tunnel. In the morning she could get some construction done, and the Workers would take over from there while she looked for the stranger.

...Alternatively, she could follow him _now_ and try to take out the robots... That sounded like a good way to test some concepts she'd read about. The fact that it might also be fun played no part in the decision.

She helped herself to some nectar before setting off on his trail.

* * *

A/N: Next time: Ty's signal reaches Lahila.


	5. Chapter 5

Out beyond Apocrita's atmosphere, hexagonal discs floated, guarding the planet and its moons from intrusion. When unwelcome ships or other objects flew in range, a small tracker would follow it, sending an alarm if the object come closer or attacked the tracker. If the object did nothing suspicious, nothing would happen. Otherwise the other satellites would be activated to destroy the threat.

Originally, these satellites were only located in the asteroid belt separating Apocrita and most of the galaxy- _especially_ Lahila. The Sky Devils were frequent, persistent intruders, enough so that they were considered just another disaster, like a bad storm. Every queen had to deal with at least one instance of Lahilan troublemaking, and the things never attacked the same way (this was clearly proof of their inherently chaotic nature). Some queens also had to deal with other species, but that wasn't as common.

The system wasn't perfect: occasionally something would get through and wreak havoc before its inhabitants chased the threat away. The fact that it worked well enough was long considered proof the system needed no improvements. Having these satellites closer to home had been a sudden burst of brilliance from the previous Queen, but she'd never implemented the idea, so the planet was subjected to further conflict. Repeated exposure to the outside meant Basic, the common language of the Alliance and surrounding areas for centuries, slowly made it onto their small list of essential information concerning foreigners. Most of said list involved how to get rid of them and which ones were inedible.

There were many, many records of outsiders coming to harm the Hive. No friendly foreigners existed, it appeared- they were all 'hatched in the Swarm', so to speak. So there was no reason to believe in the strange things that reached the planet, like the images of well-armed, funny-looking people in white armor who claimed to come in peace, to bring order to the galaxy. It was obviously a trick. So, plans were implemented to encase their home within a blockade of satellites. The first rounds were already sent out. More were being built this very moment. Hopefully this would deter, not attract, foreign interference. Especially not from Lahilans.

Chalcida, current Queen of Apocrita, had lived for a long time even by the standards of queens. Two attempted _invasions-_serious enough to warrant that word!- by Lahilans (the second destroyed all but one of the cells her potential successors were pupating in), the brief presence of bright yellow robots that were dangerous (but stupid), a drought, and other disasters punctuated the last fifty years of an otherwise orderly reign.

She would _not _believe these broadcasts, and after a few years of annoyance left it all up to the Soldiers, with strict orders not to contact the Alliance or its affiliates or its enemies for any reason. Chalcida was getting old and needed to make preparations for her _only_ successor. She needed to make sure everything transitioned perfectly, and could not do so with the threat posed by these sneaky outsiders on her mind. Dealing with it was left to the Soldiers and (of course) her successor.

Right now, all was well, everything was moving ahead of schedule, and she was going to be dead soon- her antennae drooped and didn't move, her wings wouldn't close correctly without help, and she was only laying one egg every few weeks. According to the old texts, she had two days left, which was a shame because her successor would emerge from her brood cell shortly after. She wanted to meet the girl and maybe give her some advice.

Because of this refusal to discuss the foreigners, Chalcida was blissfully unaware of the most recent landing on her planet, of the raging debate among the Soldiers about the next Queen's views on the Alliance, and the distress signal making its way to the home world of their worst neighbors.

She died the next afternoon, ahead of schedule.

* * *

Ambassador Talnak, happily unwinding after months of traveling, negotiations, and treaties, was watching another Alliance-produced movie while sprawled on a velvety black leather couch. He had his legs (one was mechanical) crossed at the ankles, resting on the custom-made lacquered coffee table. The floors and trim were some rich, dark hardwood, and the heavy curtains were deep red with black patterns. The carpet did match the drapes, haha, thanks for asking. The walls were painted a dark, romantic brown. A tall, narrow window shone a gentle beam of afternoon light behind him onto a little indoor waterfall fountain that existed to make a relaxing trickling sound. Every rock was carefully selected to look as natural as possible. Tropical plants, clipped and shaped to enhance their natural beauty, rested in the corners, and on the wall opposite the door was a painstakingly detailed painting of a rainforest. It was the kind of fancy, opalescent room people were supposed to be _luxuriously_ _undisturbed_ in.

Talnak's grey, sandpaper-textured skin scraped the fabric of his thick, fluffy robe, which was partly open. The flat patches on his well-muscled body shimmered a faint blue. They burned dark green with annoyance when he heard some familiar footsteps, but he quickly got that under control. He closed his robe and straightened his posture. Have to look dignified for the grunts.

"Sir, Ambassador Talnak, sir! We have received news from Apocrita sir!" Imek shouted across the room as he jogged to his supervisor. His steps echoed in the chamber. The man in question sighed and paused his movie. It was some kind of buddy-cop flick, with a Rhizomian villain.

"We're still _watching_ those savages?" Talnak asked, grabbing the stack of paper the younger man shoved at him. "Barely count as hunter-gatherers," he grumbled under his breath.

"Yes sir, you should look at these pictures right now here sir because they really show something that you should see you know because you're the Ambassador and it looks bad," the young assistant blurted out. Someone had pranked him with Cadrinian powder, and the smell lingered.

The dignitary laughed softly. "Have you ever considered taking public speaking courses?" He flipped through the images as Imek rambled.

"No sir because I don't think I'm gonna be a politician type guy, I'd rather be a kind of behind the scenes type of person sir, but not in a creepy way you know, just not everyone has good PR like you sir you're pretty awesome." Who hired this guy? How had he stayed employed? Oh, right, Talnak did and now he couldn't fire him because it would look bad to fire someone with a fantastic work record because he talks funny. But the kid was right about the Ambassador's awesomeness, if he did say so himself.

"Looks like a defensive grid. They really don't want company," he stated. "How long has it been up?"

"About a week now sir, it just all got shot up at once and also we didn't know it was there and we think Ty Parsec went by it to dodge the asteroid belt sir, because of the mines, and now we have a distress signal from his ship, so do we send it on to Star Command or go take care of it ourselves?"

"Send it on, blasting those bugs is too risky- politically speaking- with the galaxy watching. Comes with signing that bit about the rights of all sentient beings, blah blah blah," he paused a moment before adding, "Oh, and those public speaking courses will now be a condition of your continued employment. Am I clear?"

"Yes..." the assistant looked uncertain, but started to leave anyway.

"Go read up on Cadrinian powder, would you? You'll see it my way when you do," the Ambassador suggested at the last second. It took forever to get the rotten onion smell out of the room. Talnak, once again undisturbed, finished the movie. It was slightly predictable, but still fun.

* * *

The signal traveled to Star Command as fast as it could- slowly hopping along the sector's patchwork channels until it reached a Star Command line, at which point it was blasted right into Commander Nebula's inbox. The journey had taken days.

Nebula frowned as he listened to the signal and accompanying weasel-worded message from the Lahilans. The mustachioed Ranger was _furious_. He knew a pile of moon rocks when he heard it (Politicians! The only thing worse was paperwork).

"Team Lightyear, report to my office for a mission briefing!" he shouted through the intercom. He was careful to make sure it was a _commanding_ yell, not an _angry_ yell. No need to get everyone else on edge before he could tell them why they should be.

Cruiser 42 would need to dock for fuel and supplies when they got back from Cosmo's, so there wasn't much point in making a prerecorded message. He prepared the projector for a bare-bones briefing.

* * *

A/N: Don't worry, Ty. Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!

(Ty's facepalm here)


	6. Chapter 6

In Cosmo's diner, the lunchtime rush was on. Aliens of all shapes and sizes crowded at tables and booths. There was even a large group of Gargantians, enjoying their meals and marveling at the friendly giants. Some old women sat in another booth, playing Go Fish (Myrtle wasn't very good at poker, y'see), and one picked the ice cubes out of her soda pop. A Gargantian got the courage to ask for one of the partly melted ones.

Crashes and bangs came from the kitchen as the restaurant's owner fought with some live Sclurf, still managing to prepare four complicated espresso drinks and a dozen different burgers. He read the order from his favorite regulars again, and then rushed to prepare the big guy's food. And the young lady had decided to try the special today! As he finally got the insane crustaceans under control, he tripped and knocked the raisin container over. He removed as many extra raisins as he could but... Hopefully she liked them because there was no way he was going to pick them all out. He yelled out when one of the Sclurf jumped out and pinched his nose.

A group of regulars (Cosmo's favorite customers) sat at their usual booth, chatting about their latest adventure. More specifically, how a complementary hair brush nearly led to a diplomatic incident.

"I know, I could hardly believe it either!" Mira exclaimed. "Who'd have thought Shragarakians cared so much about the color of hair combs?"

"Now, Mira, you know we have to respect the folkways of others," Buzz cut in,"even if they seem strange or silly to us. I'm sure there's a perfectly valid historical reason for it."

"Yeah, but still, 'Blue combs? _Blue_ _combs_? I will not stand for this monstrosity!'" The quartet stifled laughter. Not that anyone would actually hear them in the hubbub of their preferred eatery. Except for the Shragarakian couple who looked horrified by the jokes, before the woman reassured her hairy boyfriend that no, really, they don't even care about the color on other planets, and isn't that hilarious?

"I'm telling you, folks, these days you can't even walk down the sidewalk on Capital Planet without offending someone. They should really make a pamphlet or something. Hey, do you think I could do that? Sounds like a good solid business plan to me. What do you say, Booster, you in? I'll cut you in fifty-fifty," XR rattled off. Booster thought about it.

"Gee, I don't know. Aren't Rangers supposed to distribute general cultural information for free?"

"General information doesn't cover 'blue combs bad', Big Guy, so we'd be in the clear," XR pushed the idea some more.

"Well..."

"I have one order of Sclurf and Turf, one Stellar Soup and Salad Saturday Special, one can of motor oil, and the rest will be ready in just a second," came Sally's voice. The four-armed waitress placed the food in front of three of her favorite customers- Booster's order was finishing up in the kitchen- before briskly walking to the next table, where Samsa was sneaking fries off an abandoned platter.

Buzz dug into his plate right away, while Mira carefully speared a tomato. The special had looked and smelled appealing enough for her to try it. Cosmo had gone just a little overboard with the raisins, but it was otherwise pretty tasty. XR sipped at his can, while Booster twiddled his thumbs. Just as his team was on their third bites, Sally reappeared with all five of his plates. Yum!

The team happily munched their food, talking about the usual trials and tribulations of being a Space Ranger, wondering what the next mission would be, and generally having a great time.

They paid their bills and left (not before XR asked a random young lady if she had any plans later that week, and she actually _gave him her number_). Sally and Booster waved at each other. The team went to the Cruiser, parked right on its nose between a freighter ship and a space cycle, and started their trip back to Star Command.

* * *

Back in their stations, Booster congratulated XR.

"Hopefully that number is really hers! Remember when that one really pretty girl gave you the Reject Line? That wasn't very nice," the red giant added. He'd been there when it happened, and calmed the crying robot as best he could. Booster didn't like to see his friends hurt.

"No, Booster this is the real deal, I can feel it! How do I look, should I get a fresh coat of paint, or do these little scratches make me look rugged?" the robot checked over his chassis.

"I think a fresh coat would be a great idea, XR. You want to make a good impression on a... first date..." said Mira, still in disbelief that XR's constant flirting actually paid off. She supposed it had to eventually- the law of averages or something like that. It was still weird to think about.

The trio continued their chatter, when Buzz suddenly announced that Commander Nebula was calling them to his office on the double for an emergency briefing.

Team Lightyear hurried back to headquarters, Mira and XR debating the pros and cons of using high-gloss paint.

* * *

A/N: Yes, this is a pretty short chapter. It's sort of a "Meanwhile..."


	7. Chapter 7

Buzz and his team filed into the Commander's office.

"All right Team Lightyear, we _apparently_ have a sensitive rescue situation on our hands," the Commander began. He started a projector.

"Ambassador Talnak has informed us that Ranger Ty Parsec has run into some kind of trouble on Planet Apocrita, located right next door to Lahila," the projector showed a holographic map of the area, with a picture of the Ambassador and another of Ranger Parsec. Talnak had a conspiratorial smile, like he'd just told a saucy joke, while Ty had his usual skeptical expression. The images disappeared, replaced by a simulation of a ship being attacked by satellites while the Commander continued.

"He was caught in some sort of satellite-mine trap and landed on the planet after sending a distress signal. He's been there for six days. The Lahilans are saying they can't do anything because Lahila and Apocrita are mutually aggressive, and they might start a war by showing up," he paused to gather his next words, and to turn off the projector. "Or something like that. They're not very clear."

Booster looked like he was about to speak, but Nebula finished his briefing:

"And they won't say much else about the situation. I've sent their message to your ship, you'll see what I mean. You will receive further details and instructions after the launch. Your mission is to fly out to Lahila, get some more information about Apocrita, and rescue Parsec. Now MOVE OUT!"

With that, the team saluted and left for the launch bay. Short briefings meant they had to hurry up and be there yesterday.

* * *

Several days earlier, while the SOS had been on its way from Lahila, Rhyssa found out the hard way that two sentry robots and a veteran Space Ranger didn't count as a small group.

She had followed her target's trail up a hill, suppressing the urge to fly; her wings could scatter the scent, and worse alert him to her presence. The moonlight made her gleaming exoskeleton a liability as well, even with the patchy cloud cover, so again she was on all six. Foliage rustled as she passed, and at one point she stumbled across and caught a creek-spider hatchling (the size of her head! Perfect!) for another light snack. It wasn't that she was starving, but Macrurus had taught her whoever lets a hatchling grow is an idiot. They'll eat anyone. She crunched away at it, thinking about good places to make a prey-cache. She was still inexperienced at those, among other things, and the older Soldiers always found her places and stole her meals. She looked forward to making one they couldn't find- if she did that, she would be considered a real tracker, and they would start taking her on team hunts. As she finished her meal, she could hear the outsider talking to the robots. He was telling them about the earlier fight, and she could tell they were walking her way. She climbed a daisy, and hopped over to a taller one, just in case.

"...and then I welded the hole, so really all we need to do is fix the door, and if possible the communication system," the Ranger finished the story. The trio were once again carrying big armloads, this time back to the safety of the cockpit. They moved slowly due to the added weight, and Ty's growing exhaustion. The group's chatter continued as they went by. Once they had passed, Rhyssa darted to the ground and started following them. They didn't notice she was getting closer... She spread her wings...

Rhyssa sprung out at them, slamming a robot to the ground. They tumbled, fighting, and she bit its head, but Ty pounced on her and the other robot clanged over and grabbed her stinger. She whipped it out of its clumsy claw-grip, and was forced to abandon the robot beneath her and focus on an angry Ty Parsec. He already had his helmet up, and his grip trapped both pairs of arms. The foreigner couldn't stop her legs from clawing at him, but she couldn't hit anything important from a half-sideways angle. Her wings buzzed wildly, to no avail. If she could just get her claws in the right place..! She tried to sting the clingy piece of meat, but the other robot had the flexible appendage firmly in its grasp this time, and to her dismay was looping it up like a power cord. The nerve of the thing! She finally got one claw in a good spot and kicked. The Ranger let go and grabbed his leg with a yelp. He looked at the wound. There was a slash on his inner leg, running from lower thigh to upper calf. It was more than skin deep, but nothing some stitches and gauze couldn't handle.

Rhyssa took the opportunity to lunge at the robot holding her stinger, and slapped the satellite dish off its head. Before she could do more, Ty nailed her with his wrist laser, and she staggered before flying up, flitting through the daisies in search of a good place to charge in.

The laser kept her at bay; she couldn't see it at night, especially with the clouds gathering, so she had to watch his arm. The foreigner couldn't see her very well either, mostly aiming at the hum of her wings or the occasional diminishing moonlight. The robots had picked themselves up, and each took a laser cannon out of their chest compartment and joined the firefight. The three outsiders had clustered so she couldn't get too close. Leaves and petals went flying as beams hit them. _There just has to be an opening!_ She thought. _If I could finish that first one!_

Suddenly, one of the daisy tops was blown to pieces, and a heavy chunk of it landed on her back. She was slammed to the ground in a cloud of pollen. Her head was free and she started to move. The wind had been knocked out of her, but she could still get out if she hurried. Her stinger was mostly free. It whipped around menacingly.

The foreigner was running towards her, limping slightly. She squirmed her way out from under the piece of flower as fast as she could. A blob of nectar was sticking her wings together. She couldn't get out fast enough, and it was hard to breathe through the pollen. They were going to kill her! _Oh, swarm take me!_ She thought. Rhyssa freed one arm, then the other, and was busily wedging the second pair loose.

Just as the foreigner was closing in, Rhyssa pulled free and flew... Or tried to. She'd forgotten about the nectar, so her takeoff launched her face-first into another daisy. He tried to jump her while she rushed to her feet, and the resulting crash threw him on his back several feet away. She dove at him, gleefully aiming for the unarmored chest. Both robots had been expecting this, and shot her in midair at the same time. Rhyssa was knocked into a daze, and tumbled to a halt at Ty's boots.

* * *

An uncomfortable silence descended on the trio. Everyone was alright, but the insectoid had done its share of damage: Ty had a freely-bleeding wound on his knee, one sentry had a crunched headpiece ("Still operational, sir!" it reassured him), and the other was missing his dish. They searched for it in vain. Then they found it by stepping on it. _Well this is wonderful!_ Thought Ty._ At least it can't get much worse_. A peal of thunder, followed by heavy downpour, proved him wrong. _Oh, haha, universe_.

"So, those lasers..." Ty began.

"They're not standard issue sir, but a bunch of us got together and decided to get some. We don't have any built in," one of the robots explained. "If it's a problem..."

"Keep them! The more the merrier!" the Ranger scoffed. Why _wouldn't_ he let them keep their weapons? _None built in, huh? That explains a lot._

Ty directed the robots to help restrain the homicidal insectoid. They were skeptical, but he wasn't going to shoot it while it was helpless, and they couldn't just leave it to freeze in the rain or come after them again. There was only one pair of cuffs, and Ty didn't feel like giving it that much free movement, so they improvised. The limbs and mandibles were easy enough, they just bound them with some duct tape from the repair kit. And a cable. And, just to be sure, some more tape. After some debate, they looped the stinger again, taping it so it couldn't unroll itself, then put the loop over the green monster's head, where it lay like a necklace.

Ty stopped to inspect their handiwork. The wasp-thing wasn't getting loose anytime soon. With some rearranging, the robots were able to carry most of the supplies with them to the cockpit. Ty carried the insectoid. Since he needed to check his wounds, the two robots retrieved the remainder. He arranged everything they'd salvaged (putting the wasp-thing next to the food and oil) before following the instructions in the first aid booklet about treating lacerations. He knew how off the top of his head, but the way his luck had been he decided to do it by the book. Once he was done with that he changed into a clean thermal suit. He still reeked of old onions, but the air cleared up a lot when he dried his hair and threw his laundry outside. The stuff in his shampoo was cracking and flaking out of his hair like really bad dandruff. Hooray.

He looked at the green monster. It was starting to wake up already. The creature shifted and squirmed on its side, not yet realizing why it couldn't move. Ty could see a small hole at the top of each body segment. His many (ugh, too many) experiences with bugs had given him a morbid fascination, so he knew the openings were its breathing system. _So it could possibly scream some more when it wakes up. Will wonders ever cease, _he thought. He also thought its limbs had too many joints.

Ty wondered if it could talk. He knew some sentient species couldn't. But if so, what would they even talk about? Somehow, he was sure "I'm Ranger Ty Parsec and I come in peace" wouldn't be very convincing given the circumstances. Assuming it could talk, did it know Basic? What if it didn't?

If he was from Rhizome he'd probably meditate and try to make friends with it... But it tried to _eat_ him, which wasn't exactly the solid foundation of goodwill on which most friendships were formed. He shrugged. He couldn't find anything out until it was awake, so he got up and helped the sentries work on the communication system.

* * *

A/N: The next chapter will have more Team Lightyear. What do Space Rangers do when they're on a long flight anyways?


	8. Chapter 8

DAY ONE

Once they were well on their way, Buzz started the transmission from the Lahilans. The screen stayed dark; it was audio-only. There was a sharp burst of static, then a chipper female voice spoke.

"Greetings, Star Command! The Lahilan Department of Information and Security wishes to inform you that Ambassador Talnak has safely arrived at his estate, courtesy of Ranger Ty Parsec, and of course all the other wonderful men and women of Star Command!

We regret to inform you that Ranger Ty Parsec has since encountered our neighbors, the Apocritans, and is likely to have arrived on their planet by the time this prerecorded message arrives at your headquarters. While Planet Apocrita has in the past played a vital role in the development of our agricultural and defensive technologies, certain events (including our new role as members of the Galactic Alliance) have brought this wonderful partnership to an end."

Mira raised an eyebrow.

"Apocrita resists Lahilan efforts to communicate concerning this and other incidents, and has aggressively halted intervention or investigations by all outside parties. As signatories of the Alliance Charter Article 4, Subsection 8a, we cannot in good faith provoke further aggression against ourselves or our good friends in the Galactic Alliance, especially when alternative means are available. We look forward to your assistance in resolving this unfortunate matter, and will, if needed, lend assistance in whatever way you deem necessary!"

The message paused momentarily, before a slightly nasal male voice finished the message.

"This has been an announcement by the Department of Information and Security. For more information, please contact your local area representative at your earliest convenience."

More static. _Then_ it was done. Accompanying the recording were several files detailing the location of Apocrita and its mines, as well as likely landing sites based on the time and location of Ty's ship at the time of disappearance. That was all. No information about the Apocritans themselves, or further details about the prior partnership.

"This is kinda weird," said Mira.

"They used to be partners and now the Apocritans are mad at them for joining the Alliance!" Booster answered. "And then they took it out on Ty!" Boy, did that make him mad! He really hoped his fellow Ranger would be okay out there... Wherever 'there' was.

"At ease, Ranger. I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of this," said Buzz. He shared Mira's skepticism. The limited details weren't unexpected (governments as a rule are worried about things being intercepted), but the tone sure was. He felt like he was waiting for the punch line. He chalked it up to cultural differences.

Buzz reviewed the files, as did the rest of the team. The satellites that Ty ran into had gone into orbit a week before he arrived on Lahila. Did the Apocritans _plan_ to attack a Ranger? Or were they hoping to get the Ambassador..? On that note, the Lahilans had never mentioned these people before - he even searched the databases to be sure - which struck him as odd. Whatever was going on here, the Apocritans were a potential threat. It sure would have been helpful if the Lahilans had given them more information- what kind of weapons and security did they have? Who was their leader (or leaders)? Heck, what did they look like? He refused to think "How do they treat their prisoners". Ty would be fine, he always had been able to hold out long enough for help to arrive.

After digging through the files for any extra information, Team Lightyear was forced to admit that they couldn't really formulate a decent plan until they reached Lahila. They did come up with some very solid outlines, and they could fill in the details when they had more to work with. Unfortunately, Commander Nebula's information was about the same as what they already had (except for the fact that the Apocritans were insectoid. It was a start...).

_Later that day..._

Silence broke out, and the Rangers were reading the files again. Mira sighed.

"So, anyone else up for a friendly game of poker?" asked XR.

"No gambling on duty." No prize for guessing who said that.

"It's only gambling if there's money or prizes involved! I'm just saying, we could do a couple rounds to kill some time," the robot defended himself. He already had a visor on over his helmet. Booster looked excited. He wasn't very good at poker, because he'd giggle when he had a good hand, but it was still a lot of fun.

Mira scoffed. "Really, no prize? What's the fun in that?" This was XR talking. Of course there was a prize, or something similar.

"Well, maybe we could raise the stakes a little, get to know each other a little better," he said, waggling his metal eyebrows.

Booster's eyes widened. "But XR, we've been on the same team for years!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, but you don't really know somebody until you've played strip poker with them." _Yep, there's the prize_, thought Mira, as XR continued, "What do you say, guys? Loser of each round takes off a piece of their spacesuit-"

Booster laughed. "Oh, I don't know guys. Doesn't that sound a bit..." he looked around, like someone might be listening, "...racy?"

Some bad memories floated through the crew's minds. "Okay, scratch that, the _winner_ of each round takes a piece off," XR corrected. "Definitely the winner."

"XR, we are not playing strip poker, regular poker, or Tradeworld Hold 'Em while on duty. If we really want to get to know each other... Who's up for some I Have Never?" Buzz suggested. It was a more wholesome game. After all, it was only his crew playing...

Ten minutes later, Mira was in hysterics- tears streamed down her face, and she clutched her sides with laughter and had to run to the bathroom- and Buzz and XR gaped at innocent, naive Booster in amazement (and mild horror). They hadn't been expecting _that_ answer, not in a million years, and they tried very hard not to think about it. It was a very persistent mental image.

"It's not that weird, is it?" Booster asked innocently. Not sarcastically innocent, either, which was worse. He really didn't see what was wrong with...

"Ah... Umm... Everyone back to your stations! I think I heard something," Buzz quickly answered.

"Uh, yeah, me too, my sensors are definitely picking up something," XR joined in. Mira came back, barely restraining her laughter, and went back to work.

* * *

DAY TWO

"Hey, Buzz! What do you think we'll find out when we get to Lahila?"

"Hopefully something useful, we'll just have to wait and see," said Buzz. He was looking at his hand. He needed another four and another seven, and he'd win. "Mira, do you have a seven?"

"Go Fish," she answered. He picked up a card. _Craters_, he thought. _It's a nine..._

"Hey, after this game can we play 'I Have Never' again?"

"No!" came the unanimous response. Something beeped on a monitor, so everyone went back to their stations. After blasting some asteroids, they resumed Go Fish.

* * *

DAY THREE

Everyone was tired of Go Fish, so they told ghost stories. Booster was in the middle of a traditional Jo-Adian legend about vampire Bunzels. At the very end of the long, meandering tale, the evil vegetables were menacing some moozles when the hero of the story arrived with a shovel and squashed them into fertilizer.

"Just a question, Booster, how did the bunzels eat if they didn't have a mouth?" XR questioned.

"Oh that! Well, Pa says they bounced off you until your skin was soft enough for them to put their roots in, but Ma says they absorbed energy through their leaves, like sunshine. It kinda depends on what part of Jo-Ad you're from," said Booster. "What about you, Mira? Are there any spooky Tangean stories? I wanna hear!"

Mira thought about it. "Well, there is one about the girl who wouldn't stop ghosting. She kept using her powers to eavesdrop and steal things, but nobody could make her stop. One night she was spying on her crush, which is seriously creepy, and she got stuck in ghost mode. She fell through him, the bed, and the floor, and kept falling, all the way down to the surface, where she fell through the ground. Nobody ever saw her again," she said.

"Ah, a cautionary tale about the abuse of power," Buzz interjected. "Truly a necessity on a planet where the citizens have such amazing abilities. Want to hear one of mine?"

* * *

DAY FOUR

"We're within radio distance of Lahila. Um, does anyone have the access code for the Ambassador's line?"

"It's 4289999-90234-07-82, I'll just go ahead and dial for ya."

"Greetings, caller! The politician you are trying to reach is currently unavailable! Please stay on the line, and the first available representative will respond shortly! Your call is very important to us, and will be answered in the order received!"

"Craters!"

* * *

DAY FIVE

Buzz Lightyear sighed. There was really nothing else to do. Everyone knew the recording by heart now, and the files. They'd managed to get a hold of the Lahilans, who were making accommodations for their arrival. Nobody wanted to play Go Fish, they were out of jokes and stories (Well, _he_ had more, but Mira got tired of them, and she could get a little cranky when she thought he was getting a big head.)

"Okay Team Lightyear, we are off-duty for a few hours. Who wants to play Tradeworld Hold 'Em?"

"I knew you'd see reason, Buzz!" XR cheered.

Now why did that fill Buzz with dread?

Some time later, he got his answer.

"Admit it, XR, you're cheating!" Mira shouted. The Tangean had her boots and gloves off, and Booster was in his socks and underwear. Buzz, wondering exactly how this game turned into a different one, had removed his chest armor, and XR's visor lay on the table.

"I am not! Booster, back me up, do you really think I'd cheat my own teammates? Come on, tell us the truth!"

Booster hesitated. He didn't like to admit it, but his friend could be a little sneaky sometimes. "Well..."

XR's eyes welled with tears. "Aw, how could you! I've been nothing but honest and now you're telling me you believe somebody else's baseless accusations! I'm wounded, Booster, _wounded_!" XR cried out in betrayal, tears filling his helmet. The effect was spoiled when chips and cards shot out of his chest compartment. "Hey, how'd those get in there?"

"Regardless of whether or not a certain _robot Ranger_ is cheating, this game has gotten way off course, so how about we start over?" He was so glad everyone agreed. He'd peeked at Booster's hand-not to cheat, of course- and it wasn't good.

* * *

DAY SIX

Twelve days after Ty landed on Apocrita, Cruiser 42 landed on Lahila. As Team Lightyear disembarked, looking at the rocky surroundings, Talnak approached with a smile. Buzz shook his hand, after making sure there wasn't a buzzer in it. Lahilans and their pranks. They grey man led the team inside for a nice hot lunch. He wouldn't take no for an answer.

"So, Ambassador, about those Apocritans..." Buzz began cheerfully. To his surprise, the man's smile suddenly looked strained.

"After lunch, alright? They're... unpleasant, to say the least," he laughed. XR rolled by, chatting with Booster. The smile relaxed. "I see you have a machine on your team! Why don't you tell me how that happened, yes?"

* * *

A/N:  
(('Thank you' to my reviewers!))) :D


	9. Chapter 9

"Hooray, we're here!" a red Ranger yelled. Oh, was he excited! A new planet to see, and one day closer to rescuing Ty (again)! And the Lahilans had a place for them to stay until tomorrow, which was really nice. Some places wouldn't be as hospitable and everyone would have to sleep on the ship. The beds onboard were a tad small for the Jo-Adian. Booster clutched his hands into happy little fists, and shook with excitement. He straightened out into a Ranger-like (but still excited) pose while everyone disembarked. XR was talking to him excitedly as they left.

_Wow! This place is so cool! _He thought. The ground was dry, flat, and rocky, the geography somewhere between a desert and plain. Hardy little shrubs dotted the landscape. A sprinkler system was running, just like the scruffy Lahilan chasing a little animal that had his shoe. Ambassador Talnak was talking to Buzz, and the tall man was about to give them a tour of the estate.

A noiseless, roomy shuttle pulled up and everyone got in. It zipped down into an orchard, where some spiky pink and white fruits were growing. They smelled like cinnamon-sugar. Baskets were under the trees for harvesting the fruits, and some laborers were getting off another shuttle. Mira and XR were whispering to each other, sounding frustrated. He wasn't sure why, though. This place was neat! Booster tuned in to Buzz's conversation. They were talking about XR.

"That sounds wonderful!" the statesman said. "Are you sure you can't tell me how it was done..?"

Buzz laughed. "Well sir, even if I did understand the technology, that's Star Command Top Secret," he explained.

"Ah, so it's proprietary information. Sorry for my intrusion!" the grey man waved dismissively, and they started trading stories instead. Talnak listened intently.

* * *

"Ahahah! Bet the little pests weren't expecting that, Lightyear!" Talnak laughed at the end of one of Buzz's exploits. He was probably the only person ever to describe a Chlorm as a "little pest".

"No I bet they weren't, Ambassador," Buzz agreed. "Speaking of the unexpected... We would like to take you up on your offer of assistance, if you don't mind," he continued.

"After lunch! My good man Imek is gathering information for you as we speak."

"Sir-"

"You're staying the night here anyway! You've got plenty of time," the Lahilan cajoled.

"Actually we were planning on leaving as soon as possible, if that's acceptable. I don't mean to be rude, but this is a rescue mission, and time is of the essence."

Talnak sprawled in his seat. He had an odd smile on his face.

"Well, I certainly don't want to stand in your way, Lightyear," he said in a cheery voice (and just a touch of hurt).

"Oh, no, we're just really worried!" Booster butted in.

"Yeah, especially since we don't know what is going on here," Mira added. She felt like she was missing something. "What exactly happened with you guys?"

"Ranger Parsec took a bad route," Talnak said.

"Okay, yeah, we know that, but I meant between Apocrita and Lahila. Your little partnership?"

"Oh, _that_. We modernized and they didn't," Talnak answered. "And the arrangement was becoming unpopular with the Reform Party. Really, does it matter? Either way, our good friend is in trouble for it, and as we've said we will help in any way we can. Of course I won't have everything ready until after lunch, so I thought I would invite you to stay, as a courtesy, but we certainly understand your need to leave us," he continued.

"Ah, no Ambassador, we didn't mean it like that," said Buzz, with a look at Mira. He was silently hoping Mira would get the hint to be quiet. He knew as well as she did that the Lahilan was hiding something. That information should have been the first thing they were given, and if there really was something going on he'd certainly had enough time to hide it. Now really wasn't the time to go prying... It might not be relevant, and if it was it could probably wait until they got Ty.

"Well, that's alright then!" the grey bristly man cheered. "Look, we're pulling up to the house! Oh, I just have to show you my new veranda. My assistant will bring you whatever you need while you're here. Again, we are at your disposal."

The "house" was a sprawling, three-story mansion with tall, narrow windows. They were glass with 'decorative' metalwork. Buzz could see carefully hidden security cameras and lasers. While the estate's employees were from all over the quadrant, the house staff were all Lahilan. Interesting.

"Are there any security threats we should be aware of while we're here?" Buzz asked. "Just so there aren't any more surprises?"

"Oh no! I'm in charge of a lot of things around here. Security and Information, Homeworld Defense, and of course my personal business dealings. I'm just a gold mine of information, haha." Talnak walked the Rangers to the door, chatting with Buzz. Booster was right behind them and the other two hung back a little, not yet crossing the threshold.

"Yeah, if he would actually answer us," Mira grumbled quietly to XR. Then, an idea hit her.

"Hey XR, want to do me a favor?" She smiled at him sneakily.

"Sure, but it'll cost ya."

Mira rolled her eyes, and then looked back at him. "What if you do some behind-the-scenes investigating for us? Find out more? Maybe a little hacking..." she wheedled just a little.

"What, are you crazy? I'm not gonna lie, Mira, that's a terrible idea!" the robot hissed at her.

"Would it be worth getting _these_ back?" she asked, holding up a few pictures. XR's optics flashed in surprise.

"Sweet mother of Venus, how did you get those? I mean, ah, that's not me in there!" he stammered. Then, seeing Mira's expression, "Well, it's not what it looks like." Mira's face didn't change, so he gave up. "Okay, fine, it is what it looks like, but I have a very good reason!"

XR mumbled something under his breath. "Okay, Mira, but only because you asked me sooo nicely. Such a friendly way of asking, I'll never forget it, mark my words. In fact, I'm going to write it down-"

"So you'll do it?"

"Do what, guys? Why are we whispering?" Booster asked suddenly. Mira and XR jumped.

"Nothing!" they said at the same time.

* * *

A/N: Comments and feedback very welcome!


	10. Chapter 10

_Days earlier..._

It was really dark. His eyes tried to adjust, but it was impossible. There was _no light whatsoever_. The roar of wings and bodies moving above him was faded, so Ty knew he had to be pretty far underground. There was an Apocritan gripping each of his arms, and suddenly they shoved him forward. His steps echoed on rock. Ty felt cold and gelatinous, from fear and venom. His eyes squeezed shut. He knew what was coming, tried not to think about the sharp _'crunch!'_ in his immediate future... A whimper disguised as a cough escaped him. Another set of hands grabbed him, yanking him forward, and he suppressed the urge to scream. He would not give them the satisfaction. He refused..!

* * *

_Crunch!_

Buzz bit into a nice cold pickle, wondering where XR had wandered off to. His plate was loaded with delicious (but frankly hideous) food. They were sitting in a really nice room, all dark hardwood and heavy curtains. An artificial waterfall trickled on one side of the room, and there was a painting of a rainforest. Slight marks on the floor revealed that some furniture had been switched out for the table, which was polished to a mirror finish. The wall on one side was retractable, so there was a lovely view of the Ambassador's estate. It was on the edge of a plateau, and by looking out Buzz could see down into the valley (Talnak owned a lot of land). Short, scrubby plants with white and yellow flowers burst through rocky soil in clusters, and the orchard was being harvested. The delicate cinnamon-scents of ripe fruit drifted upwards. Buzz strained his eyes to see the workers- none of them looked Lahilan. Again, strange.

He was annoyed with the Ambassador's insistence on lunch before anything else, but there was no arguing with him. In fact, the man seemed determined to talk about anything but the mission. Right now, as he had been for the last quarter of an hour, Talnak was trying to pry details about Jo-Adian crop production from Booster- "For trade! I haven't gotten a chance to speak with the Jo-Adian representative!"- but Booster had been away too long for any current information.

"Well, what kind of things do they make on Lahila? Maybe I can see what Pa Munchapper thinks about a deal," he asked. "I don't know what he'd want, though, things are going well last I heard."

"Ha! What does your Pa need, is the better question. We've got plenty of agricultural products you might appreciate," Talnak jumped on the opening. "Mostly organic pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, completely ecofriendly and all that. I hear Jo-Ad's got a bit of a hornet problem?"

"Oh, yeah, bunzel hornets. They're not very nice, but they're the major bunzel pollinators so we don't get rid of them unless they're nesting somewhere bad."

That didn't seem to be what Talnak wanted to hear. "Hmm, I see. Well, I'm sure you'll think of something, you seem like a reasonable young man."

"Thanks!" Booster said happily, reloading his plates (again). The Ambassador turned to Mira, who was getting more and more suspicious. She couldn't say why, but she really wanted to dig around in his head. He seemed to notice her feelings. Both people smiled politely at each other, and Talnak offered her a pitcher of water, which she graciously accepted. It was pretty dry outside. Mira decided to bring up the reason they were there in the first place. Again.

"So Ty is stuck on this planet next to you guys? Have you heard anything from him or anyone else since you forwarded the distress signal? Anything at all?"

"He did try to contact us a few days ago. Converted to your clock, I think four or five. It didn't go so well, the connection was bad, but he did say that his ship has suffered extensive damage during his landing. He himself has made contact with the locals and has thus far avoided capture," Talnak answered. "Anyone want that last bread roll?" Buzz took it. It was lumpy and bubblegum pink. The Lahilans had a very different idea of what constitutes 'good presentation'.

"Well, we do need to know more about where we're going before we go get Ty, so if you would be so kind, Ambassador..." Mira continued where she left off. "Not that I don't like this nice lunch, it's really generous of you, but we're on a mission here."

Talnak exhaled. _Ha, he can't put it off any longer_, Mira thought. "Ah, yes. I believe my assistant has the appropriate files by now. A moment, please," he pressed a button on his watch, and several minutes later a well-dressed younger man darted in. He had a scraggly beard, and his hair was a mix of... Well, hair, and quills. He had a manila folder and two discs. Talnak took the items from his assistant, and flipped through the folder before handing it to Buzz, who also flipped through it. The assistant shot out of the room just as fast as he'd arrived. The information was actually pretty good, this time. There were more details about the Apocritans (they apparently had some sort of physically-based class structure), with some pictures of them. He winced at one- a big group of the aliens had someone clenched in their jaws and were pulling in all different directions. More were swarming into frame at the time the shot was taken. Yikes. They were definitely a sinister-looking bunch.

"I'm very sorry about the lack of details. A lot of it is proprietary information," Talnak excused himself. "You know how it is with lawyers."

"It's alright, I ah, think we've got enough to work with here," Buzz answered. He took that particular picture out before passing the folder to Booster. "I can see why you waited until after lunch. What are these discs?"

"The first one will get you past the satellites. It took some work, believe me, but Lahilan technology is _lightyears_ ahead of theirs," the Ambassador said, elbowing Buzz playfully. The two men shared a chuckle at the pun.

"So the Apocritans didn't benefit from your partnership?" Mira cut in.

"Oh, they have benefited, just not as much as they could have. I suppose it's for the best, they're a bit more interested in meals than deals. Your captain can show you what I mean, haha," he joked. Then, to Buzz, "The second one is the landing site based on the most recent transmission from our good friend Parsec. There's a handy little map, too, and other geographical data, things like that. Hopefully Ty's still doing well," Talnak grinned at Mira. "You sound interested in our partnership with Apocrita, Princess Nova."

"_Ranger_ Nova," she corrected, "and yes, since nobody's mentioned any of this before. It can look suspicious to certain people." Mira kept her annoyance in check as best she could. Something about him grated her nerves.

"Ha, there's certain people who are suspicious of everything!" he said with a wave of his hand, "But yes, if you truly must know, Pri- _Ranger_ Nova, you are more than welcome to ask."

Buzz and Mira spoke at the same time.

"Well, to start with-"

"Okay Team, we've had our break-"

"Oh, sorry Buzz, you first."

"Thanks. Ambassador Talnak, we really appreciate your help. I wish we could stay, but our missing Ranger is still out there and based on current information, it doesn't look like we can afford to stay much longer," he stopped and looked around. "Does anyone know where XR went?"

* * *

A/N: Dialogue ahoy! I think I kept everyone in character (but if you disagree let me know!).


	11. Chapter 11

Somewhere in the halls of Talnak's estate, a short (but handsome, if he did say so himself) robot Ranger rolled out from behind a plant. He had originally gone to look at a neat little machine in a corner. Then he accidentally bumped into Ghemai the cleaning lady, who was a pretty Lahilan with a full head of quills and a _great_ pair of legs. The sandpaper skin was a lot rougher that Talnak's, and he realized the scratchy bumps were actually short, flat quills. Ghemai directed him to the room where the Ambassador would be meeting with his teammates "for lunch and whatever business you're here for." XR acted like he was going to go that way, but he was really on a top-secret recon mission! Actually, he was just snooping around because Mira asked him to. _Actually_, he was just snooping around because Mira _blackmailed_ him to. "Stupid vacation photos..."

He waved and smiled at her, pretending not to notice the body armor and weapons his scanners detected under her baggy cleaning uniform. That was pretty weird. As he wandered in the general direction she wanted, he noticed the other house staff were similarly armed. What the horse head nebula was that all about? He jumped behind a plant when two kitchen guys pushing food carts passed by, chatting in their native language. Armor and guns. Why would maids and cooks need that? Really tough dust bunnies, stubborn stains, food that's a little too fresh?

Which brought him to the present. He rolled over to some stairs. There wasn't a rail along the sides, so he couldn't scoot up the way he usually did, but there was a sturdy looking table at the top. He stretched out his arms, grabbing the table leg, then reeled himself up. The table was as sturdy as he thought, but the nice, fancy vase on top of it wasn't. XR barely caught the rocketing porcelain thing, and carefully set it back in place, undamaged. He wiped imaginary sweat off his helmet. Imagine if he broke it! He could have broken his cover! There wasn't any way he could explain being way back here, especially after that hot maid gave him directions. He could be reprimanded or the Ambassador could get in a hissy fit... It just wasn't good, let's leave it at that. XR got himself under control and wheeled down this new hallway, peeking in doors and out windows. Nothing suspicious, no secret doors or people chanting in robes or whatever else might justify Mira's suspicions.

The next set of doors he looked at had a computer (logged in, and unattended! Yes!), so XR zipped in, the thrill of intrigue running through his circuits. A little cable came out of his chest compartment and plugged into a port on one side. He made sure nobody was looking before continuing.

"Okay, what kind of dirt can we get from you, pal?" he said to the computer screen. As if in response, the machine put up a couple of firewalls (XR got through those pretty easily). Then he started to get into the files, starting with "Family Photos". They were, as they claimed, family photos. Okay, whoever was logged in to this was either up to no bad, or had no concept of subterfuge. He narrowed his search parameters to "Apocrita". Nothing. He tried "insectoid". A warning not to sell Cadrinian powder to a list of planets, most of them places that were home to or traded heavily with insectoid species. Okay, wasn't that the gross onion stuff people put in shampoo to tick them off? He briefly read a little more about the powder- it was a slow-acting nerve agent that when mixed with fructose became odorless and tasteless. Harmless to mammals, birds and reptiles, frequently used on pets, livestock, and the occasional filthy hobo. Okay, so it also offed their ticks. He read further... The powder's effects got even stronger when trophallaxis (whatever that was) was involved.

XR saw that someone else had researched Cadrinian powder on this machine, so he pulled up the same files that person did. Earlier that day, the searcher had received a transmission from- "Hey, that's a Star Command code!"- Ty Parsec's ship. He opened the files. Maybe there was something in the transmission they left out, or maybe he was just getting caught up in Mira's fantasy world. Either way, he'd go ahead and copy this and other files to his drive. He could analyze them with Mira later. For fun, XR decided to search "partnership". File after file after file popped up, followed by- you guessed it!- more files. Some of them were centuries old. Wow. He skipped those and checked the contents of some new ones... They involved business deals, and the government stuff he already knew about from the news and such. Boring. Then XR tried stuff from five years ago, which netted him the same thing. Hmmm, didn't the Lahilans say that the Alliance had something to do with this? He searched the ones from fifteen years ago, a little before first (well, official first) contact, and hit a jackpot on the third one he opened. His optics went huge. Oh boy. Oh, sweet mother of Venus this was some dirty dirt! Prime blackmail material, if he were so inclined. And if it were illegal, he grumbled. "Stupid corporate law..." He cracked open an encrypted file, expecting more of the same.

Whoah. What the- This wasn't really- Mira was _right_!? He copied this document, and the ones it referred to, and the ones those ones referred to, which meant he had to get into the intranet without leaving tracks. That was tricky, but XR, Robot Ranger, knew his way around a network. He downloaded lots of other things, too, just to be sure. It was taking a while. He bumped a coffee cup as he stretched, and realized it was still pretty warm. He'd better hurry up. This computer might not be as abandoned as it looked.

XR made sure there was no sign in the computer of his little adventure, and withdrew his cable. XR withdrew his cable. Withdrew the cable. The uncooperative cable. Withdrew the cable from the blasted port! Come on! Then he noticed something else, besides his compromised position. Something else had snuck in while he was getting all this information. It gave him a thrill that was definitely not intrigue. Uh-oh.

"Aw, craters, this is going to- Yaaaaaargh!" the malware took effect, overloading the robot's hard drive, attacking his memory, leaving his circuitry begging for mercy. Zeroes and ones shot through his vision, and sparks flew while he wrestled the malevolent thing in his hard drive. XR withdrew his cable- hey, it worked this time!- wheeled clumsily in a figure eight, and collapsed. His optics flickered and blinked out.

A few minutes later, Talnak's assistant blundered into the room. He stared at the fallen robot. He pulled out a radio, ready to call the cleaning lady, but suddenly had a great idea.

The scruffy young man heaved XR down some halls and passages, sneaked across the living room, and chucked him down a flight of stairs. Now it looked like he just had a bad fall, the kind that jostles a CPU. No reason to check his drive. He wondered briefly if what he had just done could be considered criminal. He decided that it wasn't, after all even if they did fix that robot, the security malware would have wrecked anything suspicious. One could argue he even did everyone else a favor. Then, remembering what he was supposed to be doing, collected some files and discs and ran to the Ambassador's private meeting room. Everything would be fine!

... So why did he feel like he was about to be sucked into a wormhole?

* * *

A/N: XR, you have to keep your antivirus software updated!


	12. Chapter 12

Buzz liked to consider himself prepared for anything. Tyrants and dictators of all stripes were no match for his wits, the common criminal no match for his skills. If he did happen to be caught unaware, he could (almost) always adapt to the new situation, especially if he had help of some kind... teammates, willing locals, and so on... Teamwork makes the galaxy go 'round.

That little (almost) was for truly bizarre events. That disastrous recon mission, the other time he was framed, insane stuff like that.

This wasn't one of the (almost) situations. Anything to do with XR wasn't, simply because the little robot had the tendency to take the worst course of action if his sense of self-preservation wasn't triggered. The robot Ranger was lying on his back, mouth open and optics shut off, at the bottom of some stairs. Some of the house staff were standing around, and the cleaning lady had one hand firmly clamped onto a petrified Imek's shoulder. She spoke to Talnak through a forced, toothy grin in Lahilan. She must have been really ticked, because Buzz could practically hear her teeth grind. Talnak put his hand on his assistant's shoulder with a laugh, gently reassuring the woman as he did so. This did nothing to comfort the young man, whose eyes darted back and forth between the pair so fast Buzz was surprised he didn't get whiplash. Imek did try to smile... Well, his teeth showed and the corners of his mouth turned up. It was a start.

He mentally noted Mira's expression- it was well subdued, but the tinge of panic was unmistakable. Had she been doing something behind his back again, and if so what was it? He trusted his team- they'd all been through too much together for him not to- but there were times when he had to ask questions like that.

Times when a whole bunch of unauthorized civilians were trying to pry open XR's circuit board, scattering like roaches when Buzz came around the corner. Or when Talnak's assistant had the guiltiest expression off PC-7 while the man himself grinned like a cat in a room of wounded birds.

"Ah, Lightyear! It seems your little robot has fallen down the stairs!" Talnak started walking towards the team. "We can repair him, you know," he immediately offered. "If you want. There is no pressure." _What a weird smirk._ "But I would advise it if you plan on going to Apocrita. After all, we wouldn't want a crippled comrade on such a hostile planet, would we?"

"Er, no, I'm afraid we'll have to turn you down. There's no time to wait- XR is just going to have to spend some time offline," Buzz declined.

"You could leave him here! We'd be more than happy to help," Talnak pushed. "I insist, it's really my fault for installing such narrow steps."

"Oh, I'd hate to impose," Buzz said, "and besides that, it's against regulations to leave a Ranger behind."

Talnak waved his hand dismissively. "Regulations!" he half-sneered. "I'm sure you can make some kind of an exception, just this once."

"No, I really can't. I wrote half the book, I would know," Buzz responded sternly.

"Exactly! So I'm sure you can find some kind of work-around, couldn't you?" _Oh yeah, Ranger senses going off now._

"No, _sir_, I really can't. We'll be out of your hair in no time. Booster, pick up XR and let's go."

With that, they left, not seeing Talnak's glowering expression. He turned his attention to Imek, who cringed.

"I hope for your sake things go very, very well for us. Things haven't changed _that_ much around here."


	13. Chapter 13

Rhyssa felt funny. She knew something had happened, something important, but she couldn't remember what it was. Her vision was distorted and her whole body hurt, like the time she was trapped in a spider web and burned all her energy trying to escape. It was Macrurus who freed her, after stinging her a few times.

([You idiot! I should have let the beast have her dinner,] the older one warned. It wasn't an empty threat. She'd left sisters behind before, on grounds that they should have known better. The lucky ones had other help nearby.)

Rhyssa had been ill for days after that, but she definitely learned her lesson about flying faster than she could track. But she could see straight and move her mandibles that time, unlike now... She kicked her feet, and realized they were stuck together. So were her hands, and her stinger. The events of the day flooded her mind, and she jerked out of her spot to see what was going on. Rhyssa's sight cleared up a little, which was quite a relief. The robots were doing something she couldn't see from her spot, and the foreigner was watching her with his arms crossed. She gave him her loudest, most rattling hiss (she was a little too sore for a proper shriek), and rustled her wings as ferociously as possible. The stranger just raised his eyebrows at her.

"Hey, it's your own fault. You're the one who came after me, remember?" he said. He wasn't even a little bit intimidated! Rhyssa tried to claw whatever was on her face with her feet, but couldn't reach. Something kept her legs back. "You're not going anywhere, trust me on that one," the outsider continued, "and if you were wondering, it's still the same night. Do you know Basic?"

Rhyssa debated answering him. On the one hand he was an intruder. According to the Hive, that made him inherently dangerous. A mental contaminant, if allowed to remain, Macrurus would have said. On the other... Wasn't she curious about the Galactic Alliance? Weren't all the Soldiers? Perhaps she could wring some information from him, somehow. Unless it turned out he only wanted to know so he could get information about the Hive. It wasn't like she could stop him from trying, she grudgingly admitted. She decided not to, until she had an idea of his intentions. _Odds are they aren't good, or he wouldn't be here_, she thought.

"Did you hear me?" the man said, uncrossing his arms. She stayed quiet. "Well, if that's the way you're going to be I saw this really big spider outside. Maybe I should introduce you?" It was a mean thing to say, but at the moment he didn't care. He should have been on his way home, but these people blew up his ship. He was allowed to make a bad joke.

"Don't!" she snapped at him. _Now he knows, idiot!_

"So you do understand me. Ha, I knew it," he said. "Don't worry, I was kidding about the spider."

"What do you want." She asked. She (well, he thought the voice was feminine) had a weird voice.

"I just want to leave, but I can't do that if I get murdered."

"What is that." Yes, definitely weird. The best description was a flattened, slightly agitated typewriter sound.

"You're kidding me, right? You know, murder: Coming out of nowhere, trying to kill someone for no reason? Ringing any bells?"

"I have reasons. Also, what is a bell."

"Okay, let's hear it," he answered. He didn't say what a bell was. How rude.

"You are not of the Hive. I found you first so I am responsible for you. That is the reason." Her antennae swished around as she spoke, inspecting her surroundings. The pile of stuff she was next to was food. That was confusing. Ending up food was always a likelihood, but the old texts had assured her that it was the one thing the Hive never had to fear from outsiders. Not a weakling, and it considered her food. It seemed this particular one was determined to prove everything she knew wrong.

The stranger walked over to her. She flattened her wings, which still had nectar on them so they felt funny. Hopefully it didn't make her look more tasty.

"I'm not going to hurt anyone, I promise. I'd be willing to let you go if you do the same for me," he said.

"What. Why would you do that."

"Sir, are you crazy!?"

"It broke my antenna off!"

Ty motioned for the Sentries to be quiet, which they did grudgingly.

"I'm a Space Ranger. We try to do the right thing," he paused. "Either that or I hit my head harder than I thought."

The insectoid stayed very quiet, and Ty waited for an answer.

"Well?"

"I have a lot to think about, Space Ranger."

"Then I'm going back to work."

Rhyssa watched the stranger go back to work on his machine, It was true, she did have a lot to think about. For example, did he really think she'd believe him? Here, she knew, it was crazy. Here, there were only two possible outcomes for the defeated: they could be destroyed, or forced into the victor's colony. It was just how things were done. If the older sisters said [Go steal Workers,] you would, and you told them that you would let them go to keep them quiet until the venom worked. When you got home, your queen made them her Workers, and shortly after they wouldn't want to leave anymore. Rhyssa knew many Workers who were brought to the Queen's colony that way. They were sometimes more easily frightened than the others, but otherwise the same. Sometimes the colonies stole each others' Soldiers, too, but nobody told them such a blatant lie. They just stung them into uselessness and let the queen do the rest.

But this one claimed he was willing to let her go, like that was even an option? How did that make sense? She could return to her sisters, and since she knew his smell they'd be able to track him even more easily.

She strained at the tape. Ugh, she really wasn't going anywhere.

Secondly, even if she did promise, what about her sisters? They wouldn't be as willing to accept his offer as she was, and might even turn on her for agreeing to the bargain- after all, agreement meant she was neglecting her duties. There were rules about that sort of thing. Either way, she wouldn't lie to him- Macrurus said all things were justified against the Swarm, but Rhyssa wasn't sure she agreed. Not that she would let such a thought cross her mind in that sister's presence. _But Macrurus has actually fought with outsiders before, so she must know more about them than me_. The Soldier mulled over her options for a while.

She thought about the signals the satellites picked up sometimes. The foreigners did everything strangely-they couldn't even be compared to each other!- so maybe it wasn't a bad assumption that they had a different way of handling captives. Besides, when her sisters arrived, she wanted to be around. Hopefully, one of them would be Macrurus- she was very old and always knew what she was doing, and perhaps Rhyssa could see what she did wrong by stepping aside and observing. So it wasn't lying, and it wasn't betraying the Hive, to make the deal. It was... acknowledging her own inexperience and letting someone more qualified handle it.

* * *

Ty just finished getting some fuses reconnected. Repairs were going pretty well, all things considered, and he could probably get it running well enough to run diagnostics on it by the next day or so. He'd started on the monitor when the insectoid finally spoke.

"Space Ranger."

Ty looked over his shoulder at her. "Yes?"

"I will not hurt you if you let me go. It is a promise. Also, you did not tell me what a bell is."

"You're worried about that?" The stranger walked over to her again, waving the Sentries over. They took out their weapons. She curled up a little bit. The foreigner held his hands out. She had to remind herself they considered that a calming gesture, for some reason.

"It's to keep you from trying anything, that's all. We're both having a truce, right? So let's start over. I'm Ranger Ty Parsec of Star Command, and I come in peace. What is your name?"

"I'm Rhyssa, from Colony Chalcida," she responded, very pointedly not telling him her brood age. He didn't seem insulted by that. "I am very sorry for my actions." Better to say it in advance than when help arrives.

"Uh, yeah. So I'm going to get the tape off your face for now, alright?" He crouched and set his laser. "I'll get the rest of this off later. You gotta earn my trust first... You understand, don't you?" She nodded stiffly. "Okay, then, here I go..." The laser seared through many layers of tape. Ty carefully peeled it off. The second the stuff was gone, Rhyssa opened her jaws as widely as she could- to stretch the cramped muscles (and to see what he'd put up with, if she was perfectly honest, though she'd never admit it). Ty jumped back.

"Hey!"

"I was only stretching," she defended herself.

"Oh sure, and I'm a space monkey."

"What is a bell." Asking the same question always worked for Macrurus, but usually Macrurus had some extra help asking. Like being able to grab someone by the antenna and claw at their eyes if they couldn't give a good answer. It was very harsh, but she had to know what she was doing, obviously, because that didn't need to happen often.

"It's a little metal thing that makes noise."

"Why are you unhappy." She could smell that he was upset. It wasn't that she couldn't guess, but Macrurus would have asked.

"Do you really have to ask? I've got a few reasons. Being trapped on this rock, for one." He answered. He didn't know what trapped was, evidently.

"You aren't trapped."

"How so? I've got no ship, no communications, and I'm stuck on a planet where everything's trying to kill me!"

"You are moving about, unhindered. So, you are not trapped." Obviously.

"That doesn't even make sense! I can't leave, I can't get help- oh yeah, total freedom over here," Ty snapped. _Don't let her get to you,_ he thought. _I just need to hold out a few days. Then I'll go home, use some of my vacation days and head off to Mahambas VI._

"Nobody made you come here. You should have stayed with that Sky Devil." It was the truth, the only reason anyone would come was if they wanted to.

"What Sky Devil? What are you talking about?"

"That filthy Lahilan! The one that was on your ship. It must have told you to come here."

"Actually, I never even heard about this place until I was told to stay away from the asteroid belt," Ty explained, after a moment. "Would have been nice to know there were mines around the planet too, that's for sure." And some other handy things, like its orbit and location.

Come to think of it, Apocrita wasn't even in the map of the solar system. _Hey now, there's definitely something wrong with that. Was it classified information?_

"You mean to say you had no intention of coming here. You think we are so stupid we will believe that." Macrurus could say it and make people cower- Rhyssa had seen it. She'd figured out how to make her voice say her feelings too. Rhyssa could only say her words. "What else did that thing tell you."

"Nothing! Except that you eat people!"

"You say that like it's a bad thing." What else were you supposed to do with a body? Bury it?

"It is!"

"Is not."

"Is too!"

"Is. NOT."

"Is. TOO," he imitated, "and I don't want to hear another word about it. We're not five years old."

"When I was five years hatched, I was a squishy worm like you." She meant for it to be intimidating, but it came out wrong.

Ty grabbed his hair, stopped himself from pulling with great effort. Why was he getting all worked up? He inhaled deeply through his nose, held the air, and let it back through his mouth. It helped a little. Huh, Dr. Animus had a good idea. Go figure. He did feel pretty tired, though.

"Hey, Nine and Ten, you don't mind if I go lie down for a few minutes, do you?" He asked.

"Actually, I think you're supposed to be in sleep mode anyways, it's 1:57AM Capitol Time," Nine said.

_It's that late? Better call it a night, then._ "I guess we'll just finish up in the morning. Ten, watch Rhyssa and wake me up if there's any trouble."

"Yes, sir." Ten still had a dent in his head, and was glad for the assignment.

Ty unrolled his sleeping bag and got inside, on the captain's seat. No reason to sleep on the floor, after all. "Good night, everyone."

_Well, Ty, hopefully tomorrow will be better_, he thought before going to sleep.


	14. Chapter 14

Her captor had fallen asleep, the robot told her. That horrible grinding noise was called snoring. How could he sleep making such noise? She wanted to wake him up to make it stop, but being unable to move killed that idea. It didn't end with the noise, either. The foreigner was a rough sleeper in general. At the moment, he'd gone from a neat, curled position into an ugly sprawl. One arm draped over his face, the other dangled over the edge of his seat. He was half on his back and half on his side, and kept moving. It was gross! Who moves in their sleep? Twist-wings, Mindless Climbers, and other contaminants, that's who. He drooled and grumbled indistinctly in his sleep, another oddity. The robot insisted that this was normal sleep for outsiders.

What he needed, obviously, was to get rid of that sleeping bag and share sleeping room with a dozen others or so. That would put an end to this kicking around growling insanity he called sleep. Eventually, despite her efforts, she too fell asleep.

* * *

She was walking through the undergrowth and into a cave- this was an old memory, the first time she'd seen a Mindless Climber.

It jumped out at her, spiracles rattling. It kept grooming itself, uselessly, and tilting its head side to side as it clawed and chewed its own antennae. Its thinned-out shell was cracked and pitted where it injured itself, oblivious to the pain. The thing used to be her brood sister, and it was one she recognized as having vanished before they got their names. Rhyssa hissed at it, and when that didn't work she shrieked. The Mindless Climber staggered her way, and Rhyssa stood up on her hind legs, flaring her jaws, trying to threaten the thing away- back then she hadn't known why her sister smelled like that, acted like that, but knew it was something that shouldn't be near her. It ran toward her, a crack in its shell bulging slightly, and Rhyssa had just enough room to zip past it and fly away. She hadn't expected it to follow her, but it did, heedless of the obstacles in its path. Rhyssa was still a fledgling then and couldn't fly far, so she landed in a rocky clearing after only a few minutes. It smashed on the ground behind her, rolling and twitching before it somehow righted itself, ambling toward her again, on five legs. Rhyssa was too jumpy, too new at life outside the nest, to know what to do. The rattling 'hahahaha' of clogged spiracles, the evil smell, was too much-

CRACK! Thud, thudthud, CRACK!

- and then the sister she'd later learn was Macrurus had landed, heaving boulders at the crack in its shell. Fungal stalks burst from the widening gap, but it was too late. The older sister had destroyed the thing in moments, and was already gathering dead grass for a fire. Rhyssa was curled up, still horrified.

[You can't let contaminants run around, and you can't feel sorry for them either. Help me burn it before it starts spreading spores, or so help me it's the Cages for you.]

Rhyssa got up to help, and ever since then she'd always been at her older sister's heel.

* * *

Ty's dream was different. It started off with him walking down the hallways of Star Command, while other Rangers gave him odd looks. Finally he bumped into Commander Nebula, who had replaced his peg leg with XL's head...

"Hey, that's a real nice tattoo ya got there, Ty ol' buddy!" The former villain blurted out.

Nebula laughed. "I was just about to say that myself!"

Ty, of course, was very confused. "What? What tattoo?"

"The one on your face, son!"

Ty bolted to the nearest restroom, looking at the mirror. He didn't remember getting a tattoo, and wouldn't dream of putting one on his face... and yet, a snarling figure adorned his cheek. It was NOS-4-A2. The tattoo shot off his face, bounced off the mirror, and knocked Ty over. The puzzled Ranger looked up at the energy vampire, now full-sized, who sneered down at him. The monster looked around while Ty got back to his feet. It grabbed him, pinning him to the wall, and gently stroked Ty's jawline.

"You know, Ranger Parsec, you really ought to be more discreet," he said, leaning closer. "A public restroom, really now..." the vampire purred as he sank his fangs into Ty's neck. Ty realized that NOS-4-A2 was drinking his blood.

"I thought you only ate energy?" He questioned. What was going on here?

"Oh that. I got an upgrade," The vampire said.

"Uh, that makes sense, I guess. Carry on then," said Ty, completely unconcerned now that he understood. As if the vampire needed permission...

Ty woke up, already thinking over his dream. Oh, Dr. Animus would have a field day with that one if he ever told him about it. Thankfully, his current situation wasn't one that would require a psych eval if... no, WHEN he got home. Even if he did end up needing one, that dream was being filed under "Things Nobody Needs To Know". He got up, stretched, and put on a clean suit. He rummaged and found a decent towel, let the sentries know where he was headed, and went to the creek. It was only a few minutes by jetpack. Not wanting to be exposed to danger a second longer than he had to be, and not wanting to smell like stale BO either, he quickly stripped, scrubbed off in the creek, then dried off and put the suit back on. A black millipede with yellow spots trundled by, and inspected his boot. It reared up, waggling its antennae somewhere around Ty's waist. Finding nothing edible, it slowly dropped back to the ground and left. It was as tall as his knees, so he was glad for that. He smiled a little at the bug as it slowly reached a patch of fresh shoots, munched some of the leaves, and ambled into the flowers. "If only everything else around here was that friendly," he mumbled. Ty decided to save some fuel and walk back to the ship. It gave him time to think.

* * *

Back in the ship, Rhyssa woke up in a foul mood. She hated that dream so much- dreams, she felt, should not replicate odors so convincingly. Especially not that one.

She felt a little sorry for that foreigner now, to be honest, which was probably the reason for the dream. He shouldn't be allowed to run around... but she'd essentially promised to do just that, didn't she, when she'd made that deal? Should she break it? She knew Macrurus would say [Absolutely, and I can't believe you did it in the first place, you brain-stung idiot!]... the thought of doing something that underhanded made her nervous, even if he was just some outsider. Besides her personal feelings, what if she failed to subdue him again? Rhyssa doubted the Space Ranger would be so generous a second time. And he had been very, very generous with that promise. She was still in one piece, and he hadn't even kicked her around the way she expected to be (not that his boots could do any real damage to her shell, but she'd read all kinds of stories about what the outsiders did when they got their hands on somebody). That deserved investigating, didn't it? Besides, he said he was trying to contact the outside, didn't he? If she stayed quiet, she'd be able to get all kinds of information, wouldn't she? Oh, who was she kidding. If he did contact anyone else, there would be even more trouble for her. So, she should wait for him to release her, get him alone and... something. Turn him over to her sisters and confess her mistake (she wasn't looking forward to that second part), assuming nobody had showed up to help her by that time.

She heard the Space Ranger reentering the ship. When had he left, for how long? She shouldn't have fallen asleep. He smelled happy, which only made her mood worse. He also smelled like the nearby creek. _Oh gross, he was in the drinking water! _That was repulsive. Didn't he know what water bugs did in there? He walked to the food pile, opened a can of beans, and tilted the contents to his mouth- he had no utensils. Then he stopped.

"Want some?" he offered.

"No."

"Well, I'm fresh out of people, so..."

"I thought you did not eat people."

"I was being sarcastic!"

"So you do-"

"NO! Do you want some beans or not?" Was she getting under his skin on purpose? Because she was really good at it.

"I don't know, what are beans."

"Never mind, forget I said anything."

An awkward silence passed. Ty broke it. "So, I guess I can undo your feet, and that way you can stand up if you want. How does that sound?"

"It sounds good." Yes! Maybe she could free herself if she had a little leverage. Those two robots would still be a problem, though. How to get past them...

Ty removed the tape and helped her stand, while the sentries watched to make sure she didn't bite him. Once she was standing, she asked for some water. He held up a water bottle, and she sipped the contents with her proboscis. The water didn't taste right to her, but he helped himself to another bottle so she didn't really question it. He turned his back to her, and started up the controls. Static, some more static, loud beeping, and then silence. He tried again, and this time it looked like it would work. With some difficulty, Ty placed a call to the only Lahilan number he knew.

The Ambassador's face appeared. "Ah, Ty Parsec! I was getting worried!"


	15. Chapter 15

Rhyssa glowered at the machine, carefully keeping herself out of view of the little screen. The Lahilan face grinned at the Space Ranger- she should have bitten him when she had the chance! Now he was going to call them here! No no no no...

"Oh! I am so glad to see you, Ambassador Talnak. I'm wondering if you could help me out..?"

"With what? Have you finally gotten a sense of humor?" The older man laughed. Ty forced a chuckle. "You seem well," Talnak prodded.

"No, actually. I'm stuck on this planet. Apocrita, I think."

Talnak's face went flat. "Really."

"Yes, and I'm wondering if you could just send someone over to pick me up? My ship is completely destroyed, it's kind of a miracle I can even talk to you right now..." Ty laughed nervously. "I sent a distress beacon to Star Command, but-"

"We haven't seen anything like that, Parsec, but we will certainly keep an eye out for it!" Talnak, for his part, assumed one of the savages' satellites had destroyed it. "As for pickup, I'm afraid you're going to have to wait. I can't authorize such a thing, far too risky." For him, that is. The Reform Party would cost him his job (or even a couple of them) if he did. The soppy little bleeding hearts were never a problem back when conscription was legal. Let's see a Reformist walk up to those animals, see how many of them escape with only a leg missing... "Just hold on until help arrives, alright?"

"Okay, but I'm sure you're able to contact someone, aren't you? I don't want to spend too long here, the locals aren't too friendly. Or so I've been led to believe."

"Yes, that's probably true," The dignitary mused. They were probably still using that awful screech-tape; long after the rest of the universe had abandoned battle cries, the overgrown bugs still thought that was the height of diplomatic communication. No wonder they weren't even a space-faring people.

"So you'll send somebody?" Ty suggested.

"I'll see what I can do, Parsec, but really we're the only ones in the area with the sort of firepower to get through, and as I've already said my hands are tied. We've _just signed_ a non-interference policy. Keep me updated, alright?" And with that the conversation was over. Ty joined Rhyssa in glaring at the empty screen.

He tried to call Talnak again, but was only greeted by more silence. He waited several minutes and tried again- nothing but static. The Ranger weighed the pros and cons of leaving the system running, and decided it would be better to save what little power he had left. The two sentries were outside doing their job, so they didn't see him give his chair an absent-minded kick (ever since that incident with 42, people were more careful with their cruisers. In Ty's opinion, it was another of those once-in-a-lifetime things that always seemed to happen to Buzz). It didn't make him feel any better- if anything, the knot in his stomach grew worse. If the Lahilans weren't coming, it could be quite some time before he could get off this miserable backwater.

"So... looks like I'll be stuck here longer than I hoped," he said with a nervous chuckle.

"You should not have contacted that thing." _He actually tried to get that Lahilan to come here! Unbelievable!_

Ty scoffed. "Why not?" He sat in his chair, a little dejected. What was he going to do?

"You honestly expect a rescue."

"Yeah, why shouldn't I?"

There could only be one reason for it. "So you are very important..."

"Not really, it's just the right thing to do. Wouldn't anyone help you, if things were the other way around?"

"How can it be the right thing to do. All those resources for one person who is not even important."

"Okay fine, don't answer," said Ty. "What's the deal with you guys anyway? Between you and the Lahilans, I mean."

"They are creatures of chaos. We are not," Rhyssa said. Ty raised his eyebrows at her.

"That's not true, they've got the novelty items market cornered." _And some nifty shield devices and armor. _"And farm supplies. Creatures of chaos don't farm.""Regardless of this 'market', I am telling you that they are nothing but Sky Devils, the same as glowworms and lightning. They are contamination and should not exist."

_Wow, talk about bad blood. _He considered the former state of his hair. "Alright, agents of chaos, I'll give you that one, but what happened?"

"Bad things, last time they came to the Hive they-" _Don't tell him anything! He'll just use it against us somehow!_

"Yes?" Now he was in familiar territory. Interviewing somebody wasn't out of his league- it was in the Ranger job description! "Have you actually seen what they did? Could you maybe give me some details?"

"A long time ago, we made them leave, and ever since they have come back for us."

"Could you be more specific?"

"The Lahilans come here, and they burn us and burn the food, and spray things on the ground and do other things sometimes. If they are gone for a very long time it means they are going to do something worse when they get back. Last time-" Oh, why not just tell him. He wasn't going anywhere anyway. "They got inside Colony Chalcida. It was winter so everyone was asleep..."

_This was her last winter in the cell, and in the spring she'd be useful- a real person, not just some mouth to feed. Her caretakers always said that it was important to be useful, and only the useful were important. Dreams of flying, being named and other proofs of adulthood- of being more than the useless hungry mouth she'd always been- would soon be fulfilled. She'd been told that the day she __emerged there would be help- fellow Soldiers to encourage her, Workers to give her food when she needed it. Her caretakers, obviously, had been wrong on that count._

_The gentle busy thrum in the Hive had been replaced with angry sounds- screeching, buzzing, some noise she couldn't recognize- and a horrible chill. That was not what had awoken her. Some kind of heat wave did. She chewed her way out, over the course of several minutes, not stopping even though she was exhausted. Somehow she knew that would be a mistake. Finally she popped free of her cell (this was supposed to be a happy occasion!), and crawled partway up the paper walls. She had more eyes in this form than as a larva, and it took a while to get used to them. The furious swarms of activity knocked her down again and again, nearly sending the fledgling to the bottom of the Hive. There smells she didn't recognize, and what she eventually realized were bright, artificial lights blinding everyone. A searing beam of light shot down in intervals into the Colony like some kind of giant sewing machine, burning anything in its path and melting the wax combs. Her wings were still crumpled and useless, so she had to crawl up the walls._

_Large metal spheres zipped around in the nest, blasting harmless snips of light at things. She angled her body toward one and jumped on it, her jaws failing to crush the casing. Her weight did drag it down, which slowed her ever-jostled fall... Her wings weren't fully expanded, and couldn't keep her in the air. Older Soldiers shot upwards, while more and more Workers joined them. Soon the nest was emptied out of anyone who could fly, while the fledgling still sank down. The metal sphere continued to flash light every so often, but otherwise did nothing. The fledgling flapped her wings, moving them closer to a wall. She still had the metal ball in her jaws when she landed, clinging for dear life to the sides. The chaos above continued for an eternity._

_She scaled the walls as fast as she could, ignoring the chirps and squeals of the larvae- what could she possibly do to help them?- hoping to find someone who knew what they were doing. After a while, her head peaked out of the surface. It was an endless field of white- blotches of color marked things like her sisters, broken machinery, and fire. Some Workers huddled together, trying their best to get melted wax out of their fluffy hair. Globs of the cooling stuff sat in the snow. A group of older sisters were eating something that smelled funny. She cautiously neared them, and could see cloth wrapping something gray and sand-papery. Edging closer, she grabbed at it and was nearly dragged into the meal herself for her insolence. Another older sister stopped them, ripped the flashing metal ball from her jaws (congratulating her for her good deed, although the fledgling wasn't sure what that deed was) and led her to a fire. There she stayed the night with the other fledglings while everyone else ran around fixing things, or ran around looking for scraps and supplies. Some of them bickered, taking the opportunity to settle old scores when nobody was paying attention._

_Colony Chalcida wasn't the only one hit; all the big colonies were. The only good to come of that day was that it was near the end of winter, so all told only a quarter of the Workers and brood were lost..._

"So you see why they are evil," Rhyssa finished the story.

"Uh, question? Were your friends... ah, eating somebody?" Every time he tried to forget certain aspects of Rhyssa's diet, something reminded him. On that note... Was it really safe trusting her to keep her promise?

"Yes."

"I mean, I can see why you're angry but... well... that's a person..." Or it was, anyway. Ew.

"Lahilans are not people," she said.

"Yeah? I bet they've got some wonderful things to say about you, too."

"Why don't you turn that machine on and talk to that thing again and find out if they do. Maybe invite them here to burn us if you like."

"Wha- what? Nobody's getting burned!"

"No, of course you get to leave first."

"Okay, listen. I don't know why you're being so hostile to me. I didn't do _anything_ wrong, and I didn't realize a call was going to cause this much trouble. Sorry." That last sentence wasn't entirely sincere, but Rhyssa seemed to buy it for the moment. Neither of them looked at each other.

This time Rhyssa broke the silence. "Well, if you truly didn't understand, I suppose I can overlook it this time."

"Okay then." Ty figured that was as close to 'I forgive you' as he was going to get from her.

"So... Since there's nothing else to do... want to play cards?"

"I have seen those on broadcasts!" She shouted, jaws snapping with excitement. "Do they come in hexagonal form?"

"Nope," said Ty. He took a deck out of his chest compartment. "We'll start with 'Go Fish'..."


	16. Chapter 16

_A day earlier..._

Most fights between Soldiers were noisy, drawn out brawls between the younger sisters meant to impress elders and threaten equals. These were constant, and tended to repeat, the same old feuds dragging for years before someone snapped. This was different. It was for power and status, and it was between two older sisters- it would be short, messy, and (most importantly) final. Everyone, especially her subordinates, knew Macrurus wasn't content with merely _winning_. There could be no chance of a challenger reappearing in the nest.

After that was settled, she flew to the watch station. She happily cleaned her face and claws before entering the run-down building. Everything was jury-rigged, from the multicolored floor to the different screens and even the speakers. Rust dotted the room. It was easier to cobble these buildings out of ancient ship parts than get the materials to construct them from scratch. _And it shows,_ she thought disdainfully. _We have to get better at making things before some foreigner crushes us all._ Some of her little sisters were bickering over some nit-picky mathematics, or chemistry, or physics (it was all the same to her) which she didn't even try to get involved in. The grand picture was hers, working out the details was for those below. Keep those sharp minds busy and useful so they didn't start any funny business... Her job was to make sure everyone was in their place and working, and if that meant sinking to manipulation and petty tyranny, so be it.

Most of the Soldiers here enjoyed her protection, though it came with a price. They owed her and if they ever thought of going their own way they were more than welcome to, but... when was the last time they'd had to fend for themselves, really? Get their own food, fend off rivals, fly more than ten hours? Getting rusty, are we? Isn't it better to stay and work here? Don't you love your sisters? Your mother? Are you mentally contaminated, or some kind of traitor..?

It worked very well. There's nothing wrong with reminding someone where they belonged, she'd been raised that way herself, and turned out just fine.

She remembered when she'd brought Rhyssa here, back when she was unsure whether the younger one was even a good prospect. Rhyssa had looked at screens and dials in amazement- having never seen such things before- and another of her sisters slapped her hands away from some buttons. It was a good thing she had, as the buttons in question controlled the lights and there was a team reading something foreign (an "instruction manual") to try to figure out how to make a laser. Rhyssa had glared at the manual, wishing she could read better, and had been so grateful for an older sister that was teaching her. Which was good- gratitude's a wonderful thing for others to have. Macrurus had initially done so to keep Rhyssa from embarrassing her like that again, and only continued when she noticed that her new novice was getting some bad ideas from other literates. Macrurus wanted to keep her subordinates all to herself, thank you very much. Queen Chalcida had put everyone in Macrurus' brood in charge of these modernization projects, not some soft-shelled girls with more ideas than sense, and things would stay that way. No need to worry about the outsiders after that, if everyone stayed where they belonged.

Speaking of...

[Any news from the tunnelers?] Macrurus asked.

[Yes. That Star Command ship landed over by Tunnel Twelve, the Workers have all come back but Rhyssa hasn't.] Some other Soldier said. This one had artfully twisted a little copper wire around the base of her antenna. Macrurus had learned there was no point in trying to figure out why so many of the satellite Soldiers attached objects to themselves. It didn't make any sense, but it wasn't contamination or a defect so it was better to ignore it.

_Tunnel Twelve? That's a full day's flight, if she didn't take any breaks... she should have been back by __now. _ [Why not?]

[According to the Workers, she told them to leave while she investigated, and... she just hasn't come back yet.] Apocritans didn't form rescue parties. They just assumed the worst and hoped for the best. [You know how it goes.]

[What an idiot. She should have reported back first.] She'd liked Rhyssa. She was useful enough, and better yet the moron needed her. _Trusted_ her, even. It was a welcome feeling, not that she'd admit it. [Was there anything else?] Like why it took so long to get her news? Maybe she should assign a go-between for when she wasn't at the station. Someone under her direct control, of course. No need for her brood sisters to interfere.

[We think there are survivors.]

* * *

Ty and Rhyssa had made up (again), and played cards. Rhyssa was so overly-excited and competitive about the whole thing (even though she was pretty bad at it) that for his own sanity Ty had to quit. That had been two days ago. She stole his deck, which he didn't complain too much about because they were both in a good mood at the time. Trying to talk to her about anything was an adventure. One minute she was just fine and the next they were arguing. He'd just get it back later. The Sentries came in from their daily patrol with nothing to report, not even bad weather, so it would be a good idea not to slack on the "explore new worlds" part of being a Ranger. It would give him something to do, and he probably needed the exercise. Ty stretched, his back cracking loudly. _Scratch that, I definitely need the exercise._ Maybe he'd find something to supplement his rations. Canned goods and the like got pretty old after a while. He put on a fresh suit, leaving to collect samples of soil, plants, and whatever else he could find. Even if all he brought back home was a couple of rocks and some dead leaves, the LGMs would be pretty pleased with something to experiment with. He could practically hear the chorus of "OooOOOoooooh."

Ty smiled at the thought of home. Indoor plumbing, long-distance communication, and all the other conveniences of a modern planet. He could sing about home, if he was any good at singing. His voice always cracked if he did anything more complicated than Holiday tunes. He remembered way back at the academy, how Warp was always the best singer on karaoke night (but he only did it if he was sure he could impress a lady friend or ten). Even Buzz was jealous of Warp's gift for the blues (ha). And then he went and turned evil. Why did villains get all the best songs anyway? Ty scooped a little bit of mud and stuck it in a vial, then went to the creek. He filled one vial with water, another with sand, and put some pollen in the last one. That about covered everything, unless he wanted to get some footage or fill out the personal log.

Oh, why not. It's not like he had anything better to do. He flew around, describing the plants on the other side of the creek. Something smelled like cough syrup. There was a moss that looked like fuzzy green corkscrews. He dubbed it Corkscrew Moss. Surely some botanist would give it a better name, but that's what it would be in his mind until then. Hey, maybe they'd name it after him. Or maybe he could find out if Rhyssa knew anything about the things that lived here, since she was the only local that he'd met so far. More strange plants flooded the landscape, competing for his attention. One dripped sap onto the ground below. He found this out because he stood under it long enough for some to land on his head, and some of it got in his mouth. It tasted like sugary mint, and numbed his face for a few minutes. He had to stop his personal log until his tongue stopped feeling like a rubber slug. _Okay, I'm definitely not going to try that again_. Parasitic vines with eye-searing red on green patterns wrapped around everything except the psychedelic flowers. Pastel-pink flowers that smelled so strong that he had to put up his helmet just to breathe. The whole place reminded him of the time he got stuck in a vat at the perfume factory.

He continued exploring over the next few hours and found more bugs than he cared to think about. He dutifully recorded and described every spider, fly, beetle, caterpillar, and indeterminate bug-thing that he came across. It was actually pretty fun, so long as he kept his distance. Most of them weren't afraid of him, and for some reason the black-and-yellow millipedes actually sought his attention. After a while he gave up avoiding them and stopped to pet any that showed up. He was petting one while resting on a lone daisy that had somehow ended up on this side of the creek. The bug chewed on some of the petals. In the distance he could see more plants, and what looked like large, rocky hills. It was quite the contrast to the endless daisy fields on the other side. Maybe the daisies choked everything else out.

He memorized the area for the next day or so, inputting the coordinates just to be safe. The sun was setting. The clouds were a pinkish-yellow smear on the horizon, one of the moons was rising (it was an off-yellow color), and some stars were starting to show. Were those fireflies to his left? Unfortunately, his lovely view was interrupted by pain in his leg. It was somewhat swollen from the day's exercise, and his stitches felt strained. The idea of spending time with whatever came out at night wasn't too thrilling, less so like this. He'd have to relax for a few days more if he wanted it to heal. His head felt a little off, too. Guess he wasn't as recovered as he thought he was. _Of course, with my luck it's the sap,_ thought Ty. _No, no, your luck is that the sap is the preferred dipping sauce for Apocritan cuisine, and Rhyssa is starving_. He tisked, then wondered if he remembered to give her breakfast, and if the Sentries took care of it if he'd forgotten. The Ranger zoomed back to his site, checked in with the Sentries ("Nothing to report, sir."), and cut the tape off Rhyssa's hands. He personally suspected the Sentries were the reason for her good behavior. He'd probably go ahead and finish cutting her loose again tomorrow...

"What did you do today." He smelled delicious. Was that sap? It was! He was trying to trick her into misbehaving. Well, she just wouldn't fall for it. Ha!

"Oh, just looked around, explored a little. No biggie."

"Were there any spider hatchlings?"

"I think so." He guessed the bowling-ball sized ones must be what she was talking about. "Yeah."

"I would be very happy if tomorrow you caught me one." Instead of smelling so good. He took off the armor and put it back in storage, then rolled his thermal suit leg to check the stitches. She could see his skin. It was very squishy, and she should probably stop that train of thought before she got carried away. Focus on... robot. Yes, they don't smell good and they're not fun to gnaw on.

"For dinner?" _How about For Never?_

"Or anytime. They are my favorite after caterpillars, but we are not supposed to eat those this year." Curse her metabolism, his fingers looked like caterpillar legs. Ty was... well, not a friend, only defectives and contaminated make friends with foreigners, but he deserved to be off limits. Until someone else showed up.

"I see."

They both stood around, having exhausted their guaranteed acceptable conversation topics.

"Well, why don't we get to know each other better? We can ask each other questions." He tried to force a little more cheer than he felt into his words. Every conversation so far had ended badly. _I must be a masochist.  
__  
_"That is alright, but what if we do not want to answer." Rhyssa didn't want to talk about the Hive too much. She was no traitor. Not contaminated, either.

"Just say 'Pass'?" Ty would stick with common knowledge if anything about Star Command came up.

"Okay you first."

"Uh, okay." He hadn't thought of anything yet. "Ummm... Oh! What's your family like? Any siblings?"

"It is large. I have many sisters. What is it like to be a Ranger."

"It's pretty fun. There's good pay and benefits, and you're making the galaxy a little safer. It feels good to help people, you know?"

"But you have to be careful," said Rhyssa. "You don't want to get a dirty mouth."

"You lost me."

"You know, if you help people too much, everyone will expect you to help them all the time and soon all you're doing is getting everything messy."

"With my mouth." That raised some questions Ty hoped he didn't need answered.

"Yes."

"Okay then... What do you do for a living?"

"I am in the Soldier caste," she eventually responded, "but I am in training for satellite work."

"So what do you do there?"

"Pass."

"Oh, come on!" He had a pretty good idea what it was, but he wanted to hear it himself.

"Pass, I won't answer that. What is it like on Capitol Planet." Real information! She'd be useful again!

"It's a typical upper-class place, so there's not really a lot of crime. A lot of my coworkers live there since it's close to the station, but I don't because I can't stand the property tax rate. It means I have a longer commute, but I think it's worth it."

"That is very funny." She meant it. Taxes weren't a good reason to hate a place, were they? From what she could understand, it couldn't be that different from the tribute system. Once again, she regretted her difficulties with inflection. "What is the strangest place you've been."

_Don't say Apocrita, that's not even true._ "There's a lot of weird places out there! Ever heard of Tradeworld?"

"Maybe. Is that the one with the very tiny people."

* * *

A/N: Thanks to P.A.W.07 for the fave :D


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